Crown of Dust

Starred review from September 6, 2010
Volmer's distinctive, beautifully written debut is set in the California gold rush country in the mid-19th century, when tensions and fortunes were as volatile as the ground prospectors mined. The story follows Emaline, proprietress of the Victoria Inn in Motherlode, who charges for providing room and board (and sometimes additional, special company) to the prospectors descending on Motherlode in search of the big find. She is captivated by a mysterious stranger, Alex, who barely speaks, keeps his hat tipped low, and is soon revealed to be a young woman runaway whose character and intentions come under close scrutiny. All the while, Emaline keeps a maternal eye on "Golden Boy" Alex as she exhaustively and successfully navigates the gold mines. Soon after Alex's gender ambiguity begins to have unexpected consequences, trouble finds Emaline because of her relationship with a black man. Volmer's prose is taut and restrained, moving the story along at a healthy clip as her hardscrabble characters rumble and stumble through their dusty domain. Volmer's found a fat vein of gold in some heavily mined territory.

October 1, 2010

A girl posing as a boy finds a nugget and sets off a gold rush, with mixed results for the mid-19th-century town of Motherlode, Calif.

When Alex arrives, fleeing some unspecified trouble in San Francisco that requires her to disguise her gender, Motherlode is a ramshackle settlement presided over by Emaline, proprietress of the Victoria Inn. From there, she dispenses meals, whiskey and her favors to the rough men who are scratching the hills in hopes of making a strike. But her heart belongs to Jed, a fugitive slave who's treated with grudging respect in this makeshift society by everyone except John Thomas, a nasty piece of work who also falsely asserts that Alex jumped his claim. Good-natured Limpy and his partner David force John Thomas to back off (though it's clear he'll be back to cause more trouble) and join Alex in the backbreaking work of sifting her claim to see if the nugget was part of a vein or just a fluke. David is disturbed by his attraction to someone he thinks is a boy, and Alex's feelings for him begin to stir up unwelcome memories of her female past and a grimly unforgiving grandmother back in Pennsylvania. Emaline too is a refugee from the stricter ways of the East; she left a dead husband on the trail and changed the bleak name "Destitution Valley" to Motherlode to reflect her belief that she and all the other misfits can make a new future for themselves here. The story unfolds slowly—a little too slowly, with some simmering conflict (newly arrived, respectable women want to run Emaline out of town) but little real action until the bloody climax. Yet by accretion, Volmer paints a moving portrait of outcasts and nonconformists who build their own community.

Salty, softhearted Emaline is the only truly memorable character, but evocative historical background and thoughtful social observation make this a promising debut.

(COPYRIGHT (2010) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

September 15, 2010

Alex appears to be a runaway mama's boy. The California gold rush is on, and maybe he's come to the settlement of Motherlode with the usual foolish dream of sudden riches. Alex takes a room at the Victoria Inn, where a spunky woman named Emmaline serves up rooms, meals, and beds, not to mention nighttime recreations. Readers soon learn that Alex is not a boy at all, but a girl on the run. Alex does indeed strike gold and grows new muscles, working her claim with two partners. Passing for a male is not easy, but Emmaline takes Alex under her wing. Temperance ladies, a runaway slave, and an alcoholic preacher are among the colorful townsfolk who never guess Alex's secret. As her backstory is revealed in small flashbacks and insights, the novel builds in suspense. Will Alex make peace with her past and/or reveal her true gender? VERDICT Even though the main characters are female, and the story is told mostly from their point of view, Volmer's colorful debut is in many ways a typical Western, heavy on action and subplots involving miners, unions, and strikes that will appeal more to male than female readers. While the novel is fresh and different in some ways, this reviewer had wanted more of a woman's story.--Keddy Outlaw, retired, Harris County P.L., Houston

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 15, 2010
Alex is running away and hiding from her past. Disguised as a young man, she stumbles across a small, crude California mining town called Motherlode. Its the height of the gold rush, and she blends in with the ragtag crowd of men looking to strike it rich. Emaline is the strong, robust town matriarch who runs the inn, controls the booze, and, as the only woman in town, supplies some feminine company for a price. Emaline takes a shine to Alex, gives her a room at the inn, and even lets her help in the kitchen occasionally. But when Alex finds a sizable gold nugget in the local river, word spreads fast, and the changes that come to Motherlode have a costly price, including the discovery of Alexs true identity. Volmers first novel is a pleasant effort. What she lacks in plot she makes up for in interesting characters and atmosphere. She captures the authenticity of place and the spirit of the period through the greed, exhilaration, disappointment, and hope of the characters.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)