Courtesy of Wolfpack Publishing, an e-book collection of four novels by Gordon Shirreffs, author of hardboiled action historical fiction, steeped in detail about the landscapes and the period, about the misadventures of Dave Hunter, a treasure hunter in the late 19th century and his partner Ash Mawson. In the first novel
Hell's Forty Acres, it's the late 1870s and Hunter, a loner who's worn several hats over the years, from Union Army sharpshooter to buffalo hunter to civilian scout for the Army, has spent the past seven years searching for tresure throughout the Southwest and Mexico. Said sharpshooting skills and his pride and joy, his Sharps 1874 .45-90 rifle nicknamed "Old Satan", have come in handy for him as his search has taken him into hostile, remote territories prowled by various Indian raiders, American outlaws and bandidos. He's earned the nickname "El Buscadero" aka "The Searcher" or "The Seeker". He's spent the past few years tracking down a legendary (and some would say cursed) lost silver mine but, when he actually finds the canyon it's located in a remote spot in Arizona, the question is "now what?"
He ends up saving a rider from Paiute hostiles, and she turns out to be one Lily Duryea, on the run from her slick, shady husband. She also expresses an interest in investing in Hunter's canyon, as she reveals she's wearing a money belt full of cash. Said husband shows up and starts nosing about with his henchmen, and a murderous half-Paiute "guide", exiled from his mother's tribe for a horrific crime. Also attempting to horn in is Ash Mawson, the lawman of the nearest settlement, the mining camp of Chloride, and a man who knows a lot about precious metals and how to find them.
The following novels have Hunter and Mawson teaming up again for treasure hunts. In
Maximilian's Gold, they become involved in the hunt for the lost treasure of Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico, that loyalists attempted to smuggle out in 1867 to keep out of the hands of the forces of Benito Juarez. Wagonloads of treasure, gold, silver, bullion, coins, jewels. So far, it was never found. A deal Mawson made pulls both him and Hunter into the search, complicated by gunrunners and rebels.
In
The Walking Sands, while working as bounty hunters, have caught an escapee from the Yuma Territorial Prison. The Irish-Yaqui rogue Jack Spade aka Juan Espada aka "Jack of Spades" escapes, but they recapture him after finding what's left of his fellow escapee, one Juan Valencia, a scholarly man, hardly the sort you'd expect to end up in Yuma Prison...dehyrdated and near death, but he has a fantastic gold cross in his possession. Soon they find out Valencia may have been a Jesuit or defrocked priest, who had found clues to a fantastic lost fortune, that somewhere in the
Gran Desierto de Altar was a lost Jesuit mission, where the religious order may have horded some of their riches before King Carlos III of Spain ordered all Jesuits expelled from Mexico in 1767. Awfully convenient, the duo think, that such a man had been imprisoned in Yuma Pen, with Espada, a man who knows the territory. They were allowed to escape by interested parties, but Spade messed up the deal by not delivering his charge to the people who arranged this all...
In
Devil's Dance Floor, Hunter cussed out Mawson for blowing through their recent earnings in a Tucson gambling den, to follow up on rumors of a gold and silver crown that had once rested on the head of a statue of the Virgin Mary, supposedly hidden away by a cult of the faithful years before, a statue with supposed miraculous healing qualities. The search leads to the partners being separated for a while, and meeting again, on the way to a remote village. The treasure hunters end up treasure protectors, defending the village of Solitario and it's secret from the small private army of El Coronel, a brutal American mercenary turned outlaw, riding herd over a mixed band of Mexicans and ex-Confederates, all thieves, rapists, killers and
pistoleros.
