The Floor of Heaven

Starred review from January 31, 2011
Blum, author of the bestselling and Edgar-winning American Lightning, displays all his creative gifts here. Using primary source materials from the three individuals around whom the narrative revolves, he tells a fascinating story of the 1897 Klondike Gold Rush. Charlie Siringo was a larger-than-life hero, a cowboy turned successful businessman turned Pinkerton detective renowned for his sense of duty. Jefferson "Soapy" Smith epitomized the frontier "confidence man" who considered dishonesty a way of life. George Carmack, the prospector who precipitated the great Alaska gold rush that drew the men together, deserted from the Marines, married a Native American, and pursued his prospecting dreams to the Klondike. Detailing crimes perpetrated and solved, relationships both happy and tragic, hardships unthinkable in the modern age, and the cold, magical allure of Alaska and the Yukon, Blum captures the spirit and mood of the last of the Old West. The final pages, especially, are filled with drama and a strange yearning. From a purely historical perspective, there should have been more information on Alaska as a Russian colony and American territory, but as an exciting narrative, this is a huge success. 8 pages of b&w photos; 1 map.

November 1, 2010

As a history instructor, Blum does a good job--his American Lightning, about the 1910 bombing of the Los Angeles Times offices, was a best seller and an Edgar Award winner. This work focuses on George Carmack, who set off the 1898 Alaska gold rush after discovering a promising lode; Soapy Smith, who aimed to con Carmack out of his riches; and Charlie Siringo, the Pinkerton detective Carmack hired for protection. One of those historical narratives that reads like fiction; a likely choice for discussion groups looking for nonfiction.

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 15, 2011
In 1896, gold nuggets were found in a tributary of the Klondike River in the Yukon Territory. By the following year, the last great gold rush in North America was on. Like the earlier rushes, this one drew a motley throng of dreamers, entrepreneurs, rogues, and even future literary giants (Jack London) into it, including the three fascinating and very different men at the center of this true-life saga that combines the crime story and the frontier epic. George Carmack, supposed discoverer of the nuggets, quickly amassed a fortune. Charming but ruthless con man Soapy Smith and his cadre of thugs launched a series of serpentine plots to loot Carmacks fortune. That brought into the mix Charlie Siringo, who stood astride the epoch of the Wild West and the emergence of big business. After years as a cowboy, he had become an undercover operative for the Pinkerton Agency and worked to combat labor agitators in the mining industry. The ingenuity of both Siringo and Smith as they try to outwit each other, with Carmacks fortune at stake, makes for a tense, exciting tale filled with colorful characters.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)