In the Curse of Lucky Joe German, death follows a young boy like a shadow. First, it takes his family in the winter of 1850. Only 17, he sets out from his farm in the Minnesota Territory toward the California Gold Rush.

Whichever method of travel to the gold fields Joe tries, people around him die. Though he does nothing, or little, to cause these deaths, Joe feels guilty until he realizes that each one eases his path forward.

But Joe doesn’t know that he is headed to Hangtown, where anyone who kills, or might have anything to do with someone’s death, is strung up from the well-used oak tree in the middle of Main Street.

The Curse of Lucky Joe German is a mystical western novella, a fictional work with a historical base.