cover image Heaven's Gold

Heaven's Gold

Giles Tippette. Forge, $24.95 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-312-86047-9

Not all entertaining stories need imitate the frenetic style of action films, as Tippette (Sixkiller, 1992) proves in this relaxed after-dinner tale of the waning of the Old West. It's 1916, and retired bank robber Wilson Young, 58, gets it in his head to rob $4,250,000 in gold bullion to make a political point about the way the country is going, in his eyes, straight to hell. While people are being suckered into buying cars and using electricity and telephones, the army is gearing up for WWI, which will send America's economy skyrocketing and temporarily prevent the coming Depression. To Young, the traveling roadshow of gold bullion is designed to legitimize paper currency and turn Americans into a nation of gullible consumers. He decides to express his protest through bankrobbing, which leads everybody from his wife, Lauren, to his old associates to assume that he is itching for that hoariest of Western cliches, the old outlaw's one last fling. True to the book's talky style, Young enlists the aid of a blarney-spouting top sergeant from a nearby military base to help him hijack that gold in a public square in San Antonio without firing a shot. Any potential suspense about the result quickly dissolves in a lot of engaging gab about the way the Army works, the state of the country and Young himself-his marriage, his relationship to his son, Willis (flying with the French), and his haunted memories of long-dead pal Les Richter. This is a tale as comforting as an old jacket, told in a wry, first-person voice, with a modern political point to make about this country's history. Tippette pulls it off beautifully. (Nov.)