On Christmas Day 1893 the entire town of Abandon, Colorado disappeared.  More than a century later Lawrence Kendall quests for it or actually for the ingots of gold one of its citizens hoarded which were never found. Kendall has made it his life’s work to discover the fate of the town and its hidden bounty. Decades earlier he abandoned his wife and little girl to spend more time researching and pursuing this goal. Now his adult daughter, Abigail, is a journalist and has sought him out hoping to reconnect with him and, perhaps, to get a great story at the same time. 

Kendall is convinced he can locate the town and the gold but concerning that part of his mission he has kept silent. Unbeknownst to Abigail he intends to find the town and gain glory and secretly to gain all the gold.

So Abigail meets up with her estranged father, the mountain guides and a couple interested in the paranormal and they set out for a ghost town despite the wintry weather. Soon, bloodshed and betrayal abound and as the body count rises so do the instances of avarice and deceit.  There is unnecessary gore and the trite device of the villains making plans for the future shortly before their demise.

In interspersed chapters the story of Abandon is told but rather badly. The characters are clichés- there is the heart-of-gold prostitute turned matron, the wily prospector, the fanatic preacher, the tiny waif who asks piercing questions, and so on.  The author tries to make the people mysterious and hints at their previous lives but only succeeds in frustrating the reader who would appreciate a bit more clarity, fewer cardboard characters and more substance.  At times it’s like walking into a 1950s TVwestern.

Slowly the reader learns the true fate of the town and Professor Kendall’s real reason for the expedition and the two merge but unsatisfactorily.  Not only is it obvious who is in collusion with whom but the final chapter is unbelievable.  Why would someone accused of murder refuse to tell the entire story and be content to live with the reputation of homicide? Is the motive altruism or stupidity?  Let the reader decide.

--Jane Davis