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Reviewed by Pennell Paugh
November 25, 2024 (San Diego) -- Award-winning San Diego author Larry M. Edwards involves investigative journalist Rent Beacham in another mystery. In Chariot Canyon, Rent looks into reports of welfare fraud. His investigation not only becomes more dangerous, by a twist of fate, he becomes personally connected to people involved.
When horseback riders discover a body at an abandoned gold mine in historic Chariot Canyon, Rent works with a PI who is following persons involved in arms sales. A murderer regards Rent as a threat to his group’s nefarious enterprises. Now having his life threatened, will Rent survive?
While this story is fiction, the fraud at the heart of this story is not. Join Rent Beacham as his deep dive into welfare fraud drags him into something much more sinister.
Here is an excerpt from the novel:
Rent Beacham cursed himself as he struggled to block all thoughts of immediate danger and recall the irony of how a seemingly innocent decision to take a soothing drive to the mountains led him to his lightless prison.
He leaned against the hard wall of igneous rock, holed up in what would likely be his grave: A gold mine near what in its heyday had been the boom town of Banner City, down valley from Julian, California. A single stick of dynamite — or a black-powder charge — could collapse its walls, precariously shored up by rotting timbers. Or the approaching atmospheric river, as the meteorologists called it, could flood the mine and drown him.
I think I’d prefer the explosion to slowly drowning. Then again, I’d rather be alive. At thirty-two, I’ve got a lot more years ahead of me.
He snorted in disgust at his own angst. Why could he never be satisfied with just doing his job and enjoying his leisure time like all those perfect people in the TV commercials? Perpetually plagued by dissatisfaction with the status quo, his restlessness had led him to a small mountain town, then to the desert, then to the discovery that opened his Pandora’s box. A box whose lid had come precariouslyclose to banging shut — and literally burying him alive.
Larry M. Edwards is an award-winning investigative journalist and author. His most recent book is What the Private Saw: The Civil War Letters and Diaries of Oney Foster Sweet. His previous book, Dare I Call It Murder? — A Memoir of Violent Loss, won first place in the 2014 San Diego Book Awards, Best Published Memoir.
As a journalist, he has won four Best of Show awards from the San Diego Press Club in addition to many other awards during his 25 years in journalism. Edwards currently works as a freelance writer, book editor, and publishing consultant in San Diego, CA, where he lives with his birding-enthusiast wife, Janis Cadwallader. Born in Seattle, he grew up in Kirkland and graduated from the University of Washington. After graduation, he taught school in Tacoma, Washington. To learn more visit: www.larryedwards.com
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