Hidden Gold

by Steve Frazee

KILLED FOR GOLDBrock and Pat were raised together since boyhood, and for the past ten years they saved their money to buy a ranch. Now Pat is dead, dragged by his horse—and Brock is sure it was murder. He comes to the mining town of Weston, Colorado, looking for answers and finds too many...and a pack of trouble besides. First he finds that Pat had been working undercover for the railroad. Then he learns that a hundred-thousand-dollar gold shipment has been stolen. It seems that the more he learns, the harder it is to make sense of it all. But he has to make sense of it fast if he wants to stay alive.

Genres: Westerns

226 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Steve Frazee was born in Salida, Colorado. He began making major contributions to Western pulp magazines with stories set in the American West as well as a number of North-Western tales published in Adventure. Not surprisingly, many of Frazee's novels have become major motion pictures.

Reviews

[Russell Forden · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually listened to the audio book version as read by Jeff Harding. I really enjoyed this western detective yarn. Brock Sergeant is out to find the murderer of his friend, Pat Valpondo, and the whereabouts of a stolen shipment of gold. Getting there requires quite a bit of detective work and reading the character and motivations of the men (and some women) he encounters in the town of Weston, Colorado. Wonderfully descriptive, with a really authentic and expressive reading from Harding. His repertoire of voices for the different characters are spot on (I particularly liked his reading of the Mexican, Benny Piazz). My only complaint would be his voice for the female characters was overly mannered, and made them sound a bit petulant. The story got quite convoluted towards the end and I had trouble keeping track of what was what (especially since I listened to the entire recording while driving - sometimes in heavy traffic!). It reminded me of a cross between Raymond Chandler and Louis L'amour. Some nice hard-bitten red-eyed imagery, and a good read (or listen) for all would-be buckaroos. I definitely want more.