I came across this fine spy-thriller/murder mystery during the summer of 2015. Author Stan Morse is an attorney living in central Washington State. Goering’s Gold bounces back and forth from the 1930’s to 2002 and beyond. The cover photo shows heavy duty pipes with Nazi Swastikas embossed on them. This part of the story is real. In a powerhouse somewhere in the State of Washington, these pipes actually exist. Morse gives a fictional take on how they arrived in the United States around 1934.
The book opens with three German engineers boarding a Danish freighter in Germany in 1934 to transport these pipes to a powerhouse in central Washington. The pipes were manufactured by a company owned by Herman Goering one of Adolph Hitler’s confidantes. Embedded in three of the pipes are gold ingots. The engineers are going to install the pipes as part of the manufacturing contract. By the time the pipes arrive in Langston, WA, two of the engineers are dead. Flash forward to the present.
Jerry Wells is an assassin for hire. He works for an obscure branch of the US intelligence community. On assignment in Mexico for the DEA, he executes two Mexican drug cartel leaders with one shot. As it turns out, a young daughter of a Mexican Cabinet Minister is also killed by a piece of shrapnel. Jerry decides to go on the run. The plane he was supposed to take back to Florida is shot down by Cuban missiles at the request of Mexico. Everybody thinks Jerry died in the shoot down. But he does not. Instead he hides out in the various places until arrives in Langston, WA about 60 miles north of Wenatchee on the Columbia River about a year later.
Jerry becomes involved in a murder investigation in Langston. The victim is a friend of an Assistant District Attorney. There are good cops, bad cops, a powerhouse manager who knew Jerry in Vietnam and a former Russian KGB officer. The story of the gold unfolds piecemeal. Jerry’s former bosses in Washington, D.C. as well as the FBI descend on Langston for many different reasons, none which will benefit Jerry if he gets caught.
It was a hard book to put down. And when I finished it, I wanted more.
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–Jim Harris, retired sales rep
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