prairie plum press

Migrations of Butterflies and Lies by J.M. Mitchell

In 1765, Capitan Juan Rivera and a company of men left Santa Fe with orders to find a route into what is now Colorado, to look for gold and silver. He made two trips, found a little silver, and was largely forgotten by history.

Over 250 years later, a leather-bound journal is discovered. It claims Rivera wasn’t so much forgotten as he had chosen to disappear. He had plans--plans disrupted by a Comanche raid, but not before Rivera hid gold near present day Piedras Coloradas National Park.

In Mexico, a butterfly biologist is murdered. That same night, an archeologist was killed near the park. Nothing suggested the murders--miles apart--are connected. They are.

These and other events, seemingly unconnected, put Ranger Jack Chastain on a quest for answers.