Elizabeth Crook’s latest novel is set in and around the Texas HIll Country in 1868. Benjamin Shreve is in his workshop when he witnesses a stagecoach leave a passenger behind.
The man is a treasure hunter who persuades Benjamin to help him get to the coach. There is a treasure that he says belongs to him aboard that buggy.
Benjamin is drawn into a drama whose scope he could never have imagined, for they discover on reaching the coach that its passengers include Nell, a pregnant young woman, and her four-year-old son, Tot, who are fleeing Nell’s brutal husband and his murderous brothers.
Nell is, in fact, evading a sadistic group wanted for acts of violence and harassment against Black citizens.
Nell herself is in terrible danger. She is a witness to (and a victim of) her husband’s violence and the evil committed by the gang. If they catch her, they will take her son, Tot.
Benjamin offers to accompany Nell and Tot to a distant port on the Gulf of Mexico, where they can board a ship to safety.
The treasure hunter helps as does a Black Seminole man who once worked for the Mexican army.
![The Madstone by Elizabeth Crook](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/1ef96a1/2147483647/strip/true/crop/430x649+0+0/resize/880x1328!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F85%2F80%2Ff61cdc62499ca9eb742df040b1e2%2Fthe-madstone.jpg)
This is a story about a journey–many journeys. Each is fraught with uncertainty and danger at every turn. This is also a story about secrets, cursed treasure, and a desperate belief in the eponymous madstone.
This is also a love story–and a story about forgiveness.