Lost Treasure: Clay Cantrell Mystery #1

Clay Cantrell and his partner Mac Harper are restoring a 200-year-old mansion when they uncover a dusty old journal, a Confederate captain’s diary that points the way to a horde of Confederate gold coins locked in three strongboxes. Coins that today will be worth millions, if the horde can be found.
The son of well-to-do parents, Clay Cantrell is not your ordinary contractor. An ex-Army Ranger who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, he has settled back into everyday civilian life in his hometown of Staunton, Virginia. He restores old houses there for a living, but can’t quite shake a nagging itch for adventure.
So the chance to go on a treasure hunt is a stroke of luck tailormade for Clay. The adventure takes an ominous turn though, when Clay finds himself accused of murder, before he, Mac, and a third friend start out on their treasure hunt.
Lost Treasure alternates between this modern-day treasure hunt-murder mystery and flashbacks to the Confederate captain’s story. The captain commands a secret Confederate supply depot, hidden deep inside a cavern in the wilds of Virginia’s Allegheny Mountains. That’s where the Confederates put the treasure for safekeeping in the last months of the Civil War, and where the fate of the captain’s command was sealed.
What really happened in that cavern 150 years ago? Who is trying to frame Clay for a murder he didn’t commit? Will Clay and company find the treasure?