The Custer Conspiracy

Victorious at the battle of the Little Big Horn in June 1876, Native Americans find a journal kept by someone close to General George Armstrong Custer. They keep it hidden for more than a century. When it surfaces, the action begins. Sally Wolf, an adoring student and a descendant of the man who found the journal, brings it to Professor Walter Reeves of Marlington University in Ohio. He has been in a funk, his marriage in trouble (his wife calls him Moo, My Oblivious One), his promotion blocked by a tyrannical department chairman, and life boring. He has lost interest in his work. He falls asleep at parties. That all changes now, partly because he lusts for Sally, partly because the journal reveals startling facts about Custer. Walter realizes that if the journal is authentic and can be published, then his promotion will be assured. Before that can happen, Sally is kidnapped and Walter is pursued by Native American activists and a comic pro-Custer militia organization. For quite different reasons, neither group wants the journal published. This inventive, humorous and unpredictable romp culminates near the Little Big Horn National Battleground, on the anniversary of Custer’s last stand, as Walter, Indians, and the militia collide.

Victorious at the battle of the Little Big Horn in June 1876, Native Americans find a journal kept by someone close to General George Armstrong Custer. They keep it hidden for more than a century. When it surfaces, the action begins. Sally Wolf, an adoring student and a descendant of the man who found the journal, brings it to Professor Walter Reeves of Marlington University in Ohio. He has been in a funk, his marriage in trouble (his wife calls him Moo, My Oblivious One), his promotion blocked by a tyrannical department chairman, and life boring. He has lost interest in his work. He falls asleep at parties. That all changes now, partly because he lusts for Sally, mainly because the journal reveals startling facts about Custer. If the writer is to be believed, Custer conspired with mining magnates and renegade Indians to launch a gambling casino in the Black Hills, a place that “indjuns could help run” where “white men cud play at cards” and weary travelers could “enjoy a show with indjuns and others pretendin to” fight. And he intended to procure the Democratic nomination for the presidency with a payment in gold. Walter realizes that if the journal is authentic and can be published, then his promotion will be assured. Before that can happen, Sally is kidnapped and Walter is pursued by Native American activists and a comic pro-Custer militia organization. For quite different reasons, neither group wants the journal published. This inventive, humorous and unpredictable romp culminates near the Little Big Horn National Battleground, on the anniversary of Custer’s Last Stand, as Walter, Indians, and the militia collide.

In a previous incarnation, Lorin Lee Cary taught US history at the University of Toledo, was a Fulbright Senior Scholar at the University of New Wales (Sydney, Australia), published numerous historical articles and essays, and co-authored two non-fiction books: Slavery in North Carolina 1748-1775 and No Strength Without Union: Ohio Workers 1803-1980. Both won the Ohio Academy of History's publication award, and the History Book Club selected Slavery as one of its choices. He now writes fiction. The Custer Conspiracy is his first novel. His most recent short stories are accessible at:

http://cigalelitmag.com/lorin-cary---silver-lining.html

and

http://www.decompmagazine.com/ice.htm

A second novel is in the works, or at least he claims it is, as is a collection of stories loosely organized around the theme of “tales of obsession.” A prize-winning photographer, Cary lives in California, not far from Big Sur.