Confederate Gold and Silver: A story of the lost Confederate treasury and its missing gold and silver

by Peter F. Warren

This historical mystery contains two stories which gradually merge into one. One occurs during 2011, while the other takes place in 1863 during the height of the Civil War. In 2011, after moving to South Carolina, Paul Waring, a retired Connecticut state trooper, and his wife start their new life. Soon after moving, Paul makes a startling discovery. He discovers the remains of a long-forgotten Confederate soldier, along with several Civil War artifacts. Those artifacts include two glass bottles containing several clues he must decipher. Paul determines that one clue concerns the whereabouts of the lost Confederate treasury; a treasury largely comprised of gold and silver coins. He later discovers much of this gold was stolen from the United States government at the outbreak of the Civil War.

638 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 17, 2012

Reviews

[Steve Horton · Rating 2 out of 5]

Excellent story; sloppy writing and terrible editing.
I'm glad I persevered, because the basic story was enjoyable.
Though not my favorite style, I understand the flipping between the Civil War story years and the present (2011). But the general writing was overly wordy, repetitive, and generally distracting. Not everyone can be Hemingway, I guess. Numerous repetitions of same basic fact or idea within a paragraph and from chapter to chapter also. Numerous run-on sentences with extraneous descriptions which distracted from the forward thrust of the story. for example Paul - the protagonist - never just drank a beer; he always drank "a cold, Coors Light beer". Additionally, several times the time lines within Paul's investigation just did not make sense. He was replacing the deck carpet on his newly acquired pontoon boat, which was given as a several day task, yet on completion, he went to a meeting which had been scheduled for the afternoon that he took possession of the boat.
And the editor, whoever that was, did him no favors. The verbosity of the writing should have been pared down by any editor who passed high school grammar and composition. Poor sentence structure, misplaced clauses, run-on sentences, split infinitives: it was everywhere throughout the book.
But I really did like the basic story.

[Lorraine Ward · Rating 4 out of 5]

Peter Warren told a very interesting, well developed story. The twists and turns of the 2 plots (one in 1800's Civil War period, one in 2011) came together beautifully and was captivating. My one suggestion to the writer is to get a better editor. I found a lot of "extra words" throughout the story where the writer would describe an action by the character and then kept repeating the description of that action over a few sentences. This would help the flow of the story and would help with reader enjoyment.

Otherwise, I would recommend reading this novel.

[Robert C. Dillon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not Worth the Read

Based on the title I really tried to like this book, but it wasn't the case. I was very happy to finish this book that took some effort. The two main characters went in opposite directions. Nothing could have gone better for Paul Waring in his search for the treasure while nothing could have gone worse for Captain Judiah Francis who was responsible for hiding the treasure. In my opinion the circumstances were not realistic.

[Stephanie · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was so poorly written that I skimmed through the vast majority of it. Honestly, the sentence structure, vocabulary, and repetitiveness would make this unacceptable at a middle school level.

Perhaps I didn't pay close enough attention, but in the very beginning, I was under the impression that this was non-fiction. It is fiction. That revelation explained some of the too-perfect moments and the former state trooper's actions.

Find something else to read. Anything else.

[Londa Rohlfing · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found the story line quite interesting and well developed but for the first time in my memory found multiple misspellings and even an incomplete sentence. I’m no English teacher but these glared at me and I just feel it is very sad when such a poor editing job gets through and into a printed book. Sad commentary on our education system and standards of professionalism.

[Kiki Roddy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic Story

This book has a fabulous interesting story. It a slow read though. I was quite engaged with the story. However the writing was awkward and distracting. A good edit could have smoothed out the plot and characters.

[Tracy Stocker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best Read in A Long time

Couldn't put this one down! So intriguing and interesting. Makes a compelling story to what could have been. Very well written and characters are perfect! Really enjoyed this!

[Ralph Strope · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read!!


Great book and difficult to put down once starting. Well written and good story line about the civil war. Positive and interesting characters!!

[ann chadwick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review

A good read. A little weak in writing style but holds a readers interest. Check this one out if you like history.

[Becky Randles · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ok reading g

This book was interesting fiction but way to wordy and details that just prolonged the real story. The present day d a y dialogue was way too much on the details

[Duane · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is some of the most amateurish writing I have ever tried to read. I only got two or three pages in. I mean seriously, this is like hobby writing. Not something anyone should pay money for.

[Marci Wheeler · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to love this book. As a Civil War buff & native Georgetown, South Carolinian, the subject matter & setting are near & dear to my heart. However, the grammar & writing style were terrible. What should've been a 5-star book was almost intolerable.

[Danny Kuhn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting juxtaposition of modern detective work and Civil War history. Worth a read.