Customer Reviews

The Hunt for Confederate Gold

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The Amazon "book description" is spot on, so this review won't rehash what "Hunt for Confederate Gold" is all about. Instead, I'll try to compare Thomas Moore to what I like in some other mystery writers, then end with something I hope is a little deeper:

Dorothy Sayers' gives us the pleasure of sweet writing with "Lord Peter Whimsy." So does Moore.

John LeCarre gives us complex intrigue and plausible characters. So does Moore.

Alan Furst gives us insights into a difficult period. So does Moore.

Tom Clancy gives us page-turning frenzy with Jack Ryan and his challenges. So does Moore.

Thomas Moore then does more: He presents the "Fellowship of the South" so effectively that one can experience the joy of conventional wisdom being punctured.

I was born and raised Yankee, albeit in California, and in my civil rights activist days in the 60s and 70s, enjoyed the smugness of looking down on Southerners. But I experienced Southerners personally in the 80s and 90s and lost my Yankee hubris.

While we need no Jim Crow, moderation with Jim Beam, we need bushels of Jim Honor, Jim Loyalty, and Jim Truth. Southerners have something good for all Americans. Tom Moore can help you find it.

Tom Moore's "The Hunt for Confederate Gold" is a page turning adventure story that will keep the reader up late into the evening.

Moore's novel is layered and nuanced. He presents characters with character, the old fashioned kind; men with chests who stand for something beyond their own narcissistic pleasure. And, he places these contemporary heroes against modernity's most powerful entity; the "empire of the state."

The author's nimble characterzations, his facile ability to describe the hinterlands of South Carolina, and his philosophical understanding that our society is fast approaching a dark and terrifying age are the necessary ingredients for an imaginative rendering of a very plausible and well executed novel. First rate!

Thomas Moore's new novel, The Hunt For Confederate Gold, is, in a word, spellbinding. Set both in the waning days of the War to Prevent Southern Independence and the present, the book presents well-developed characters who are truly believable.

Moore focuses in large part on the trials of University of South Carolina history professor Parker T. Hastie, who is framed and imprisoned by the Feds (with the help of his university) for his membership in The Fellowship of the South, a modern-day secession movement (could there really be such an organization? Think I'll give [...] a try, just in case). The other main character is graduate student George Trenholm "Bo" Bolitho, a descendant of George Alfred Trenholm, Confederate Secretary of the Treasury, who finds a code in the old family Bible that shows the location of the buried Confederate gold.

Moore sets up the gripping scenario involving Hastie, Bolitho, and their compatriots by interspersing into the novel the story of the transfer of the Confederate treasury from Richmond as the Yankees overtake the city. Switching back and forth between 1865 and the present is indeed one of the strengths of Moore's work. Our ancestors who hid the gold hoped that at some future time it might be used to continue the quest for Southern independence. The greatest fear of the Feds and the Empire is that the Fellowship will find the gold and use it successfully for that purpose. Their fear causes them to reveal themselves as tryants. Moore captures the chicanery and duplicity of the Feds with great accuracy.

Once Parker Hastie is in federal custody on bogus charges of "terrorism" under the USA Patriot Act, Bolitho's quest to break the code and find the gold brings the young student into the ambit of The Fellowship, which hopes to find the treasure before the Feds and use it not only to mount a defense of Hastie but for the real reason it was hidden in the first place-to finance the South's bid for independence.

Not wanting to give away the details of the plot, I will simply say that Moore has written a novel that ought to inspire every patriotic Southerner and all who love liberty and hate tyranny.

I recommend you buy it today. But here's a helpful hint--don't expect to be able to put it down until you're finished.

The Hunt for Confederate Gold, Thomas Moore's debut novel published by Fusilier Books LLC, is a wonderful, emotional, thought-provoking novel written with the tones and rhythms Southern writers have been known for since the South came into being. The book's characters are thoroughly Southern in nature. The plot is written with liberty-minded Southern sensibilites in mind. Its setting is more than a mere setting; there is a sense of place that many other authors attempt to define but regrettably and inevitably fall short of. In short, the novel is the perfect blend of story and life, of the reader reading the text and eventually becoming a character as well.

The tale straddles two timelines and three plots, all three of which are inextricably entwined. The Hunt for Confederate Gold begins in April of 1865 with the fall of Richmond to the Yankee military. It then turns to 2004 in Fallujah, Iraq, thus bringing the main character, Bo (George T. Bolitho) to the readers. Bo is a young man who sees distinct and troubling problems with the American forces' actions in Iraq. His troubles lead him out of the military and into the classroom of one Parker Thomas Hastie, Professor at the University of South Carolina, where our hero is studying to obtain his Ph.D. When Bo finds a code which could lead him to the lost, legendary Confederate treasure and his Prof finds himself in his own troubles, an exciting adventure begins which leads Bo to a new outlook on life and a new sense of purpose and duty to his native home, as well to the greatest love of his life.

The Good: The story is fastpaced and complex, but not confusing in the least for all of its complexity. There is a definite passion which bleeds from the author's heart to his written words, a passion which can easily cause the reader to weep at times. The Hunt for Confederate Gold is full of faith, conviction, and understanding -- the last of which doesn't always accompany the former.

The Bad: At times, despite the passion of the story, it reads rather like a treatise outlining the many problems inherent in centralized government, specifically the American Empire's (aka the Federal Government's) list of domestic injustices. While enlightening in the extreme it does at times jar the reader out of the story. But, because this is a first novel, such jarring can be forgiven.

Buy The Hunt for Confederate Gold by Thomas Moore. Read it and honestly consider the truths within while enjoying the story. You will never look at the world the same again.

The reviews below are spot on. This is simply a great novel. It might even bring out the hidden Libertarian in you.

At the very least, it should challenge the Southern stereotypes that many people hold, give you a new perspective on the War between the States, and a quick introduction to Austrian economics.

Thomas Moore's first novel - and hopefully there will be more - is a smashing cultural and human drama written in a Southern political/historical context. The main protagonist is George Bolitho, an ex-Army infantry officer who has served in Iraq, who looks for meaning in today's secular, power-seeking society where doing the right thing, and one's honor, no longer has meaning. But Bolitho's search has been addumbrated by a Civil War ancestor, Edmond Marchand, a Lieutenant in the Confederate Navy. He, too, is also trying "to do the right thing" in the collapsing framework of the Southern society and culture around him in the last days of the war. While the plot revolves around injustice, politics, and a lost Confederate treasure, the real story is an Adlerian thread of honor and duty to one's self that Marchand passes to Bolitho. While the reader may not always agree with Moore's analysis of modern man's predicament, as a native South Carolinian, he has grasped the deeper strains of the South and translated it into contemporary meaning. This is a novel not to be missed.

Maybe I should have started reading "The Hunt For Confederate Gold" early in the morning. Once I began reading, I was quickly drawn into the story and couldn't put it down. As a Southerner, I identified with the characters and began to see them as friends and collegues. With that, I couldn't desert them while the intense and fast moving plot began to unfold. The heroes are heroic as well as quite ordinary people and the villians are quite real and evil. Both the heroes and villians are frighteningly recognizable as present day players in our country today. As the journey of the characters moved to a climax, you could literally feel the damp Carolina Low Country marshlands and the warmth of the campfire as the story raced to its conclusion. Once that happened, the doors to no fewer than four or five more great stories have become evident and the prophecy of a new South have manifested themselves in a real sort of way. I hope Thomas Moore is working on the next in what will be a fantastic series of fast moving novels with a message to not only Southerners, but to all Americans. I highly recommend this exciting book.

Jim Walters

Lewisville, texas

Very few contemporary novelists are able to combine style, substance, and entertainment, but Moore manages just that in The Hunt for Confederate Gold. To those who think that this might be a "Southern" book, it is not. The issues and themes are not merely regional. If you like novels with suspense, action, and a point, read this book.

The consumer warnings should say, "Do not open the covers of this book if you have any pressing business for the rest of the day", and "Do not attempt to operate a motor vehicle while reading this book". Tom Moore has produced one of the most spellbinding works of the last decade. It is "Anthem", without Ayn Rand's athiesm. It is "1984", without Orwell's hopelessness. It is the masterful weaving of three plots together, to form the beautiful mosaic of a story that spans almost two centuries.

I am thankful that I am not totally dependent upon the "mainstream" book review apparatus to learn of exciting new books. I first heard about Hunt for the Confederate Gold from Dixie Broadcasting and am so glad to now see it here on Amazon!

This book is important because it demonstrates how we are truly connected to history, and the important roll that history plays in determining the present and future. Hunt for the Confederate Gold is a real page turner! Moore has woven his story so well that you just have to know what is going to happen next. Here we have all of the best elements of the classic historical "what if" story that takes the reader back and forth from the past to the future in a enjoyable and easy to follow way. While there is plenty of action, love, and even some romance in the novel there is nothing vulgar or in bad taste. This book is suitable for young adults and us grumpy old folks as well. I look forward to additional novels by this fantastic author.