Treadwell: A novel of Alaska Territory

by Stoney Compton

In 1915, seasoned Pinkerton investigator August Lepke is sent to Alaska Territory to "box up" captured serial killer Edward Krause, a job that should be routine. But once in Juneau he encounters complications, starting with suffragette Florence Malone and her shady, politically powerful father, Jack. The Tlingit policeman, George Mak-we, is nothing like the Red Indians Lepke had expected, not to mention the college-educated Filipino grocery clerk, Begay Santo. And how do the newly widowed flirtatious Austrian noblewoman Amanda Ganbor and the English journalist Arnold Williams fit into the picture? There is more going on than August had supposed. To start with, numerous attempts on his life make clear that Krause can reach far beyond the bars of his cell in the federal courthouse. The belligerent European immigrant miners have short fuses—so do their dynamite charges—and seem to have at least one saboteur among them. The mines of the Juneau Gold Belt help fill U.S. coffers and the vast Treadwell Complex dominates the region in production and cutting-edge engineering. Its loss could jeopardize the United States' ability to enter the Great War enveloping Europe. Gold mines can be murdered as well as men.

526 pages, Paperback

Published November 30, 2020