The Driver

Here it is, my newest tale, The Driver. It concerns a streetcar driver by name of Georg Vintner. Georg was born in Norway, came to the U.S. at a young age and went to sea. Somehow he washed ashore in San Francisco in 1877. He has given up the sea and now drives a tram. These days most streetcars are pulled by horses.

Georg's job is not an easy one. He works a 16 hour shift, six days a week. The horses don't have it much better, though they only work four or five hours a day. They last about five years on the job.

That's bad enough, but now a man is murdered on Georg's car, in the middle of a riot. Georg is suspected of the killing, for lack of anyone else to blame it on. Now he finds himself with the job of trying to solve the murder.

I think this book is my first murder mystery, though I'm not sure about that. With most other mysteries, the detective actually solves the crime. Read the tale, and you decide.

About the author: Following a previous life, he has turned his attention to telling stories about the Old West during the 19th and early 20th centuries. He has discovered there are thousands of untold stories to be found in old newspapers, magazines, and sometimes even history books. The stories he writes are mostly made-up fiction, but then so are a lot of history books. He has learned that what people most value are not the bare bone facts of the past, but the stories we tell about them. Steve (whose friends mostly refer to him as "Bart") derives his idea from listening to people, walking around old neighborhoods, and a lot of reading. As for his previous life, he had an undistinguished career in civil service. His first actual job was in the U.S. Army. Someday he may write a book titled "All I Need to Know I learned in the Army." He now lives in a rural part of northern California, where he likes to listen to folks and look at trees.