A Copper Town Summer

Book excerpt: Author Derek Sailors pens an intriguing tale set in boomtown Jerome, Arizona, in the early twentieth century. Designed to entertain the reader, A Copper Town Summer combines elements of the supernatural with history in order to create this interesting tale. A malodorous smell emanates from a lonely graveyard as a small orb hovers over the grave site of the Slavic miner Goran Divanevic. Through his presence, Goran’s tale is later told. Like other immigrants who settled in the small copper-mining town of Jerome at the turn of the century, Goran found steady work in one of the town’s prosperous mines. The heart of the tale lies in the murder of Janie Bailey, a lady of the evening who was last seen leaving the saloon with Goran. Later the next morning, Goran finds himself in a pool of vomit and urine, awakened by a kick to the stomach. With a rope tied around him, he is dragged through town and lynched. Using flashback, A Copper Town Summer follows the events in the town after Janie’s murder to spin a riveting tale guaranteed to draw the reader in from the opening page.