The Lost Claim by S F Baumgartner

About the Book:

She reads old paper: Queensland mining registers, transfer deeds, the dull documents that decide who owns what's underneath. So she knows what an altered date looks like. This one makes her father's claim die four years early.

Then the letter arrives: YOUR FATHER'S CLAIM WAS NEVER CLOSED.

Noah Mercer has driven eleven hours to tell her the rest. A single receipt ties the worst day of his family's life to the Callahan ground, and to money somebody used the claim to hide.

The proof exists. That's the problem. Surveillance becomes a pickup bearing down on them along a one-lane track. A court order seals the ground. Fire takes a workshop, floodwater cuts the roads, and the paper that could clear her father keeps disappearing.

Following the trail will take them into abandoned workings and across ground Lori has been ordered not to enter. By the time permission comes, the evidence may be gone.

For fans of Blood & Treasure and Mystery Road: clean Outback action-adventure with procedural bite.

Book 2 in The Mercer Files; it can be read as a standalone.

My Review:

This is the second book in a collection of shorter novels from Baumgartner featuring the three sons of Tom Mercer, the main character in the free prequel (The Last Shift, available at the author's website). This novel takes place in Australia and involves a great deal of paperwork and land descriptions. I was pretty much lost at the beginning when the plot involved documents, claim regulations and land actions by name and letter and number designations. I had no idea what most of them indicated. Unless I missed something, I had no idea what was so important about this land claim in the first place. How all the information was documented and recorded was interesting but became repetitive after a while.

Baumgartner's writing style is fast paced and succinct. Usually that makes for a fast moving plot but this time it prevented this reader's understanding of what was going on. I do wish Baumgartner had added some background information and explanations to help me understand what was at stake and what was going on. There is one more novella in this series and I do hope it explains the meaning of this one.

My rating: 4/5 stars.

You can read my review of the first book in this series, Black Gold Secret. You can read my review of the short prequel, The Last Shift and download it free at https://sfbaumgartner.com. 

About the Author:

S.F. Baumgartner crafts fast-paced Christian suspense thrillers, weaving tales of complex characters, secretive operatives, and relentless agents. Her gripping storytelling has earned acclaim, with Living Secrets and Forgotten Secret—Books 1 & 2 of her Mirror Estate series—named Top Picks in the thriller & suspense categories, respectively, at Killer Nashville, and Tangled Secrets—Book 3 of Mirror Estate series—won couple of awards in the Christian Indie Awards and the Incipere Awards. When she’s not plotting her next twist, she’s binge-watching crime TV shows, like NCIS or playing with her cats. Fans of James Patterson’s style, especially those who appreciate short, punchy chapters, will find much to love in her work.  And as always, her books are all clean.

Independently Published, 182 pages.

I received a complimentary digital copy of this book through BookSirens. My comments are an independent review.

(My star ratings: 5-An exceptional book, 4-Better than average, relevant and liked by me, 3-It is average, 2-It is below average and not liked by me, 1-It is practically unreadable.)