Victorious at the battle of the Little Big Horn in June 1876, Native Americans find a journal kept by someone close to General George Armstrong Custer. They keep it hidden for more than a century. When it surfaces, the action begins.
Sally Wolf, an adoring student and a descendant of the man who found the journal, brings it to Professor Walter Reeves of Marlington University in Ohio. He has been in a funk, his marriage in trouble (his wife calls him Moo, My Oblivious One), his promotion blocked by a tyrannical department chairman, and life boring. He has lost interest in his work. He falls asleep at parties.
That all changes now, partly because he lusts for Sally, mainly because the journal reveals startling facts about Custer. If the writer is to be believed, Custer conspired with mining magnates and renegade Indians to launch a gambling casino in the Black Hills, a place that “indjuns could help run” where “white men cud play at cards” and weary travelers could “enjoy a show with indjuns and others pretendin to” fight. And he intended to procure the Democratic nomination for the presidency with a payment in gold. Walter realizes that if the journal is authentic and can be published, then his promotion will be assured.
Before that can happen, Sally is kidnapped and Walter is pursued by Native American activists and a comic pro-Custer militia organization. For quite different reasons, neither group wants the journal published.
This inventive, humorous and unpredictable romp culminates near the Little Big Horn National Battleground, on the anniversary of Custer’s Last Stand, as Walter, Indians, and the militia collide.
Praise for The Custer Conspiracy:
“Prepare to laugh. The Custer Conspiracy takes the reader on a wild ride, mixing the true history of George Armstrong Custer's career with ironic, tongue-in-cheek fiction. Cary, a former professor of history, displays his grasp of historical research, his story-telling skills—and his dry and quirky sense of humor. Inventive, intriguing, and very funny.”
Catherine Ryan Hyde, author of fourteen novels including Pay It Forward, Becoming Chloe, Love in
the Present Tense and Chasing Windmills.
“Rich and subtle humor eddies, dances and outpaces the Little Big Horn in Lorin Cary's richly rewarding read….”
Ivon B. Blum, author of River of Souls, A Novel of the American Myth
“This historian pours a tumbler of intrigue shaken up with a page-turning pace. Custer is straight up mystery with an ironic chaser.”
Sherry Shahan, author of Death Mountain, Frozen Stiff, Purple Daze, and Ice Island among others.
"That darn loose cannon George Armstrong Custer, still stirring passions more than a century after dying with his boots on at Little Big Horn. Cary displays his historian's eye and his apparent hankering for the life of a gumshoe in this rattling good tale about (of all things) a history professor who stumbles onto what could be the find of a professional lifetime: a mysterious journal with damaging revelations about General Custer. The leather-bound grail is also being hunted by rabidly pro-Custer militia members and by a group of Cheyenne with their own agenda (nice to see characters who are so passionate about history). Entertaining mix of menace, comedy and plot twists---Custer, I'm betting, would love it."
Cynthia Nowak, Executive Editor, University of Toledo Alumni Magazine
"A clever plot, amusing read and fascinating mix of fact and fiction. Enjoy."
Andy Greensfelder, author of Drop Dead Art