Blackpowder Paintbrush

Murder marks the Kid's first day on the team carving the Mountain monument in the Black Hills. These artists use dynamite and jackhammers to carve granite and show the Kid the ropes of working atop a forty-story drop. All struggle with painful personal crises, and baseball binds them as the complications of a bloody body on the Mountain unfold. More murders crop up as they unravel the mystery, racing against the demands of dangerous work, heat, deceit, and the money menace of Dust Bowl '34.

-- Robert Charles Hunt