Black Gold - Softcover

Bean, Fred

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0812545974 ISBN 13: 9780812545975

Publisher: Forge Books, 1998

Synopsis

The Osage Indians lost their ancestral freedom on a windswept reservation in Oklahoma. Now, in the Roaring Twenties, the land is spewing black gold; oil has been found, and every Osage owns a share of the rights. Soon Osage tribal members are being killed for their oil royalties while a corrupt sheriff turns his back on the murders, Special Agent Frank Gordon organizes and undercover operation while working openly with frontier legend U.S. Marshall Will Proctor. Their investigation unearths a string of thirty-three murders, and as they race against death, Osages are still being killed. Gordon is determined to bring down the mastermind behind the ring of cold-blooded butchers. But when one of his own men is murdered and the killers turn on him, Gordon realizes there is a law beyond the law--the law of survival...

About this title

From Kirkus Reviews:

Although a bit too enamored of the traditions and myths surrounding the Texas Rangers, Bean (Lorena, not reviewed, etc.) does a commendable job in this action-filled adventure set in the East Texas oil fields in the 1930s. The story opens with the murder of hapless wildcatter Bill Dodd on the eve of his registration of a mineral-rights oil lease. Dodd's murder is simply one more violent act in the virtually lawless environs of the east Texas fields, and local authorities ignore it. Texas Ranger Lee Garrett is told to quietly investigate the killing, in response to Dodd's widow's complaint that he was killed by people who wanted to steal the lease. Almost immediately, Garrett discovers that there's more to the case than a simple act of murder and robbery. Tracing Dodd's associations through a prostitute, Molly Brown, Garrett begins to connect the nefarious dealings around the drilling rigs to organized crime in New York. In the meantime, another ranger, Roy Woods, is working with Treasury agents to shut down bootlegging operations in the nearby piney woods. Soon the two rangers are brought together. They tie corrupt officials to Eastern gangsters and discover that the real power behind the crime wave may be none other than Texas oil tycoon H.L. Hunt. Garrett's investigation is complicated by his growing love for the somewhat mysterious Molly. Tension increases as debates between Garrett and Woods over how lawmen should conduct themselves divide the two Rangers and seem to forecast future changes in policies and procedures long held sacred by the rough and ready Rangers. Though burdened by clich‚, a plodding plot, and a tendency toward the sentimental, the novel holds the reader's interest, thanks to Bean's deft hand at character development and his knowledge of the period. The climactic action scenes are well constructed, and the dialogue, though often repetitive, is natural and true to the time and place. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Library Journal:

In the 1930s, oil is discovered near Longview, Texas, bringing roughneck drillers, wildcat speculators, and unscrupulous camp followers to the little town. Bill Dodd, an inveterate loser who finally makes a strike in the oil fields, is murdered before he can file his claim, and Ranger Lee Garrett is assigned to investigate. Garrett joins forces with a U.S. Treasury agent looking into bootlegging, bypassing corrupt county law enforcement agents. Meanwhile, a local prostitute knows more about the case than she's telling. After some half-dozen people are brutally killed and a suspected Mafia connection is exposed, Garrett solves the case to everyone's satisfaction but his own. A surprise ending gives this story an interesting twist. Bean (Lorena, LJ 12/96) has effectively captured the aura of Texas during the oil boom and Depression years, when the Texas Rangers often used methods as brutal as those of the criminals they pursued. Recommended for public libraries.?Thomas L. Kilpatrick, Southern Illinois Univ. at Carbondale Lib.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Forge Books
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0812545974
• ISBN 13: 9780812545975
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 384