A dead body discovered in an abandoned house on Southeast 29th Street in Oklahoma City. In a city and a state where crime and violence were common, it might have seemed routine. But death-especially murder-is never routine, and the investigation of this particular death led young Oklahoma City detective Walter Gage on a journey he could never have imagined. 1920's. Oklahoma. Oil. Boomtowns spring up almost overnight. Drillers, roughnecks, landmen-and gangsters, prostitutes, con-men, all following the money. And there was a lot. When the American government moved members of the Osage tribe...

Sand and the River is the story of the Gage family of Oklahoma, taking place largely in the 20's and 30's. Oklahoma, not long a state, was booming. Oil wells were popping up in many areas of the state. Towns that had existed only as small farming communities or had not existed at all were suddenly bustling cities. Many of the large--huge?--oil companies that were familiar names in America for most of the twentieth century got their starts in the Oklahoma oil fields. Lots of people got rich. The Gages were not among them; they were, for the most part, laborers, overseeing the pumping oil...