He climbed the vertical wall, using the few available cracks and jutting rocks for hand and foot holds. As his face rose above the ledge, he saw the two-foot-high, four-foot-wide seam of quartz encasing a mass of reddish-yellow material. "Oh, my God!"

Scrambling onto the narrow shelf, Nolen jerked a pick hammer from his hip bag and attacked the clear crystalline rock. Within minutes, he held a small piece of yellowish rock in his hand.

Nolen quickly verified the rock's hardness with the point of his knife. "Soft, and malleable," he nervously whispered. "Its color is consistent throughout. And the color doesn't change in sunlight or when shaded." His hands shook as he attempted to remove a clear plastic vial from his shirt pocket. It contained the colorless testing chemical, aqua regia. He dropped a tiny chip into the liquid. He held his breath. The gold dissolved.

Nolen jumped to his feet and started dancing in small circles. "I found it! I found it! ..."

more excerpts

Thanks to the shifting nature of the mountains in California, Nolen Martin discovers a huge vein of gold overlooked by earlier prospectors.

For unfathomable reasons, he finds himself being stalked by a huge international mining cartel. And by the FBI!

His problem quite suddenly becomes critical. He must stay alive long enough to file his claim.

But it's clear, others will take whatever steps are required to prevent him from doing so ...

I've spent years learning my craft and laboring to gain honest feedback about what was needed for improvement in my novel so I could eliminate those flaws and produce a captivating story for you.

Consequently, I've rewritten Gold Lust, numerous times to provide impressive characters skirmishing across an interwoven plot with surprising twists.

Ed Mitchell