Five Thousand Guineas, Two Bodies in a Barn, Five Miles of Hell

A Brianna Quinn Depression Era, Historical Mystery/Thriller

By: Bentley Dadmun

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Length: 3 hrs and 13 mins

Publisher's summary

In a chance conversation, Brianna, part time cat burglar striving to survive during the Depression, learns of a mysterious 18th century map hidden on a farm in New Hampshire. The farm is owned by Hannibal Jackson, a man of color, who was chased off it by the Ku Klux Klan. The map is cryptic, so Brianna arranges a meeting with Jackson at the Liberty Bell Diner, where she learns the cryptic lettering on the map refers to five thousand of something, perhaps something valuable.
Brianna and Martha, a gun for hire, go to the farm to look for the map. They park in a nearby woods, sneak onto Jackson’s farm and retrieve the map, which is shellacked to a board in the barn. On the way back to their car they have an encounter with several members of the Klan.
Back home, Brianna learns that in July of 1771, a British warship arrived with five thousand guineas to pay for the occupation of Boston. Rogue British soldiers stole the guineas, and thwarted in their attempt to head south, fled into New Hampshire where they had encounters with local militias, resulting in the deaths of most of them, but not before they were able to bury the guineas in a remote farm graveyard and flee. The last two soldiers died in Jackson’s barn, leaving the map.
On another visit to the Liberty Bell Diner, after a confrontation with local toughs, Brianna and Martha learn that Benjermin Howard, an ex-history professor and high ranking member of the Klan, is aware of the guineas and is actively looking for them.
She obtains crude 18th century maps suggesting that the location of the farm and graveyard is near Plymouth, New Hampshire. Eleven year old Prudence and her Nana, Agatha, who are living with Brianna, were highly experienced Maine guides before the depression and Brianna wants Agatha to accompany her and Martha, but Agatha is in her sixties and arthritic, so Brianna has no choice but to allow Prudence, who is clever and mature beyond her years to go with her and Martha in their attempt to recover the guineas.
It does not go as planned.