Book excerpt: The Golden Curse A treasure. A murder. A curse. The Dominion of Canada, 1879 When con man William “Deuces” Sutherland wins a cryptic map in a poker game, he’s off to find a lost golden bonanza and he’s taking his friend, the beautiful and talented mechanician Satin New Brunswick, with him. Together with a surveyor, a nurse, two aeronauts, and the North-West Mounted Police, the two must decipher the map, deal with crazed prospectors, survive acts of God, and – oh, yes – escape the dread prairie whiskey pirates of Captain Rotgut and the infamous Rum Runner. And if that’s not enough, the gold is rumored to be in the thrall of a curse. A curse that’s already claimed more than one life.