Lori Callahan knows how much can depend on a date written in an old register. Her work involves the records that establish who owns a mining claim, when it changed hands, and what happened to it afterward.
Then she finds an altered date affecting her own father.
In The Lost Claim, that change makes his claim appear to have ended four years early. Lori has the experience to recognize the problem. What follows is considerably harder than identifying it.
When professional knowledge becomes personal
A record can look dull until it concerns someone you love. The columns and signatures suddenly carry questions about decisions made years ago, and about the people who were left to live with them.
Lori is a mining-records archivist, already established in Longreach. She has a life and expertise of her own when Noah Mercer arrives. He brings a receipt connecting the Callahan ground to his family’s loss, giving them a reason to compare what each has found.
Their knowledge is different. Lori can examine the documentary history. Noah, a mining consultant with a background in geology, understands the ground. Neither perspective supplies the whole answer.
Finding the error is only the beginning
What draws me to Lori’s situation is the distance between recognizing a forgery and being able to put it right. Knowing that something is wrong does not automatically restore what was taken, persuade anyone to listen, or keep the remaining proof safe.
For a character with a personal stake, patience becomes difficult. Every delay leaves someone else’s version of her family’s history in place.
Lori’s story begins tomorrow, September 29. The Lost Claim is the second Mercer Files novel and offers a complete case that can be read on its own.
Preorder The Lost Claim here, or explore The Mercer Files.
Do you enjoy a suspense story that begins with someone noticing a small detail everyone else accepted?