Satan's keyhole : a western duo
(Book)

Silver and Shells for General Kearny opens in Santa Fe in the early days of the Mexican War. The Army of the West under General Kearny has begun its military invasion of New Mexico. The despotic New Mexican governor Manuel Armijo whose residence is the Palace of Governors in Santa Fe has accepted a bribe of $30 000 in silver to abdicate and leave the province. The problem is the delivery of the bribe. Danny Macduff, entering Santa Fe with a pack train of furs, is mistaken for the courier transporting the silver and finds himself plunged into the intrigues of the provincial capital.

Satan's keyhole is set outside Placerville in the days of the California Gold Rush. Glenn Anders has come to California searching for Jamaica Anders, the woman who has ruined his life. Glenn is an engineer, but one with a bad reputation due to his emotional instability. Down on this luck, he is engaged to take over a seemingly impossible engineering job -- building a bridge across Satan's Keyhole. This is a chance to redeem himself, but he will have to deal with violence between the miners, the Chinese fraction, the speculators, and the gamblers -- all of whom are seeking their own ends. From the time he agrees to take the job, he can't shake the feeling that someone is out to kill him and sabotage the project.