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New reviews coming soon! I'll be importing my work from the past two years, but in the meantime,
I'm reclaiming my small place on the web.

Monday, January 24, 2005

Fiction Review

Slumach: The Lost Mine
by Edgar Ramsey
ISBN-10: 1594579970
Review by Heather Froeschl

Gold fever can be deadly. The lost mine of Slumach calls to those who desire the untold riches of the legendary tales. But there is a curse upon the mine and those who seek it. Their worst nightmares come to life as they trek closer to the hidden gold and most never make it out of the rugged mountain terrain alive.

Slumach was executed for murder in 1891. In the previous months it is said that he would come into town with bags of gold nuggets. Anyone who tried to follow him was never seen alive again. Just as his execution was being fulfilled, he muttered a curse..."When I die, the mine dies." And so it was, so it seems.

The story follows Professor Paul Gregory and his young assistant Bev Dayton, and also a couple of lowlife criminals, Kevin McCarthur and Randy Smith, as they follow through with intentions to find Slumach's lost mine. Do they beat the odds and come away with bags of gold? Time will tell, but they do find the realization of their own nightmares.

The story is an interesting one and a temptation to anyone who has ever wondered about gold fever. The author has created very deep backgrounds for the characters so that the reader will truly understand the nature of the curse in the end. However, in order to do this each character goes through numerous flashbacks and very detailed memories that can be confusing to the reader. Jumping from character to character and memory to memory was a bit mind boggling, though each was like a story in itself and demonstrates the author's talent for short story telling. Edgar Ramsey shows a knack for detail and description. My main complaint is with the flow of the stories, and more than a handful of typos and misspellings.

Overall, the book is a good read if you can get through the head hopping.

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