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Steve Kohlhagen is a former economics professor at the University of California, Berkeley, a former Wall Street investment banker, and is on several corporate Boards, most recently elected to the board of Freddie Mac. While at Berkeley he authored many economics publications, and he and his wife Gale jointly published the murder mystery Tiger Found in 2008. His first novel is in English, "Where They Bury You" and German, "Wo Man Dich Begrabt," and the sequel, "Chief of Thieves" is currently being translated. Both are published by Sunstone Press.

In August 1863, during Kit Carson’s roundup of the Navajo, Santa Fe’s Provost Marshal, Major Joseph Cummings, is found dead in an arroyo near what is now the Hubbell Trading Post in Ganado, Arizona. The murder, as well as the roughly million of today’s dollars in cash and belongings in his saddlebags, is historically factual. Carson’s explanation that he was shot by a lone Indian, which, even today, can be found in the U. S. Army Archives, is implausible. Who did kill Carson’s “brave and lamented” Major? The answer is revealed in this tale of a group of con artists operating in 1861–1863 in the New Mexico and Arizona Territories. As a matter of historical fact, millions of today’s dollars were embezzled from the Army, the Church, and the New Mexico Territory during this time. In this fictionalized version, the group includes the aide de camp of the Territories’ Commanding General of the Union Army, a poker dealer with a checkered past in love with one of her co-conspirators, and the Provost Marshal of Santa Fe. It is an epic tale of murder and mystery, of staggering thefts, of love and deceit. Both a Western and a Civil War novel, this murder mystery occurs in and among Cochise’s Chiricahua Apache Wars, the Navajo depredations and wars, Indian Agent Kit Carson’s return to action from retirement, and the Civil War. The story follows the con artists, some historical, some fictional, during their poker games, scams, love affairs, and bank robberies, right into that arroyo deep in the heart of Navajo country. Includes Readers Guide.

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Category: Literature & Fiction; Mystery, Thriller & Suspense; History

August 1863 finds two con artists traveling with their embezzled cash to build their dream ranch in Washington Territory. But some Cheyenne Indians have different plans for those white settlers heading west, plans that cause the story of our con artists to become three stories. Chief of Thieves, the sequel to Kohlhagen’s Where They Bury You, takes the reader into the disasters of early Western ranch life and the births of lawless Wyoming towns; inside Cheyenne villages and tipis, where this hunting civilization of people, called “the greatest horsemen and cavalry the world ever saw,” lived, raided, and were attacked and massacred as they slept; and into the relentlessly driven lives, internal conflicts, and battles of George Armstrong Custer and his Seventh Cavalry. The three stories interweave at an ever-quickening pace, from Colorado negotiations to battles in Oregon, Wyoming. Kansas, and what is now Montana, including the massacres at Sand Creek and the Washita River, before culminating on a beautiful June 1876 day on the Little Bighorn River. Custer’s Little Bighorn decisions under fire in real time become understandable on these pages as death comes to historical and fictional characters, con artists, U. S. soldiers, and Cheyenne alike, and the three stories merge climactically on that fateful day in American history. Chief of Thieves is based on the factual story of how Lieutenant Augustyn P. Damours conned the U. S. Army, the Catholic Church, and the New Mexico Territory out of millions of today’s dollars.

Kindle Price: $4.99

Category: Literature & Fiction; Mystery, Thriller & Suspense; History

Wo man dich begräbt(WHERE THEY BURY YOU)Roman von Steven W. KohlhagenDer Umfang dieses Buchs entspricht 463 Taschenbuchseiten. Joseph Cummings, Provost Marshal von Santa Fé, wird eines Tages in der Nähe eines Arroyos tot aufgefunden. Der Scout Kit Carson stellt fest, dass Cummings aus dem Hinterhalt von einem Indianer getötet wurde - und dass er 5. 000 Dollar bei sich hatte. Aus diesen historischen Fakten hat Steven W. Kohlhagen einen Roman über einen mysteriösen Mord geschrieben, in den eine Bande von Trickbetrügern verwickelt ist. Sie planen weitere Verbrechen, und die Armee kann nur wenig dagegen unternehmen. Denn die Soldaten kämpfen an mehreren Fronten. Einmal gegen General Henry Sibleys Texanerbrigaden, und gegen mehrere Indianerstämme: Apachen, Utes und ganz besonders die Navajos. Ein Kampf, dessen Ausgang zumindest 1863 noch völlig ungewiss ist. Der Roman ist ein grandioses episches Werk vor einem sorgfältig recherchierten historischen Hintergrund. Ein Muss für jeden Western-Leser!

Kindle Price: $4.99

Category: Literature & Fiction; Mystery, Thriller & Suspense; History