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Minotaur Books
March 2010
On Sale: March 16, 2010
368 pages ISBN: 0312570163 EAN: 9780312570163 Hardcover
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Fiction Family Life
When a block of coal the size of a stove shoots out
of the wall, miner Amos Blevins barely has time to react
before the entire area is flooded with water. He frantically
tries to rescue his crewmates, but in an underground space
that is pitch black and too cramped to even stand up, he can
barely crawl to safety himself. Inspector Will Murphy is
sent to investigate, ordered by his superiors to clear
things up quickly so the mine can reopen. After all, if the
mine closes, then miners lose their jobs, and so do mine
inspectors.
It seems to be a straight forward
accident, but Will senses something suspicious about this
case—or maybe he's just lashing out at his older brother,
who has usurped his place as heir to the largest mining
company in Eastern Kentucky and owner of the flooded
mine—but Will has decided he won't let this one go, whatever
it might cost him.
Before he can get far, Will's
witnesses start turning up dead. And Amos, who refuses to
follow his boss's orders to lie to Will about conditions in
the mine, finds the little he has threatened. Together,
these two men will learn that in the mines, life, family,
money, and power all come from one
thing—coal.
Drawing on his four years of reporting on
the coal mines of Kentucky, Harris has painted a vivid
portrait of rural Appalachia, beautifully capturing the
place and culture of the mining community while weaving a
complex and taut story of murder and corruption.
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