Brush-popping ornery longhorns out of the South Texas chapparal is a perilous business, but it is nothing to compare with the danger Jack Burnet finds himself in when he encounters a pair of nuns who demand that he escort them through the Camanchero-infested wilds of Texas to Austin City. He tells them he is only going to take them a short distance, but fate keeps intervening.

If they get to Austin City, Sister Rosetta has even more plans for Jack. She knows the secrets of Black Mountain where a two hundred-year-old waybill claims thousands of bars of gold are hidden and she wants Jack to lead her treasure hunt. Fighting off bushwackers, nests of rattlesnakes, and escaping from pits of quicksand, will any of the party survive the search to find the gold, if it even exists?

Kent Conwell grew up in the Texas Panhandle, in the town of Wheeler, population 848. When his family moved to Fort Worth, he spent many hours at the stock yards, but he still managed to earn his bachelor's degree. After moving to Port Neches, Texas, Kent married, earned a master's degree and a Ph.D., and achieved a successful career in education, but his love for writing and the west never waned. Over the years, he has won short story, screenplay, mystery, and western fiction awards.

Sidetrip to Sand Springs is Kent's seventeenth book for Avalon.

Avalon Westerns by Kent Conwell:
GRAVE FOR A DEAD GUNFIGHTER
ATASCOCITA GOLD
JUNCTION FLATS DRIFTER
PROMISE TO A DEAD MAN
BOWIE'S SILVER
ANGELINA SHOWDOWN
GUNFIGHT AT FRIO CANYON
AN EYE FOR AN EYE
A HANGING IN HIDETOWN
THE GAMBLING MAN
RED RIVER CROSSING
A WAGON TRAIN FOR BRIDES
FRIDAY'S STATION
SIDETRIP TO SAND SPRINGS
VALLEY OF GOLD
THE ALAMO TRAIL
PAINTED COMANCHE TREE
THE GHOST OF THE BLUE BONE MESA
BUMPO, BILL, AND THE GIRLS
LAUGHING GIRL CREEK
JIM WELLS
GLITTER OF GOLD
TEXAS ORPHAN TRAIN
BLOOD BROTHERS
THE GOLD OF BLACK MOUNTAIN

Avalon Mysteries by Kent Conwell:
THE RIDDLE OF MYSTERY INN

The Tony Boudreaux Mystery Series
THE CRYSTAL SKULL MURDERS
DEATH IN THE FRENCH QUARTER
THE SWAMPS OF BAYOU TECHE
EXTRACURRICULAR MURDER
THE YING ON TRIAD
VICKSBURG
DEATH IN THE DISTILLERY
SKELETONS OF THE ATCHAFALAYA
GALVESTON