The Load: An Over-the-Road Mystery — Doug White

The dispatch appears to be strictly routine: Pick up a load at a mine in Montana and deliver it to Reno, Nevada. But it doesn't take long before long-haul trucker Jake Winters realizes he's being sent to a ghost town to pick up a load at a mine that closed more than a hundred years ago. Little does he know that a mysterious pick up is the least of his worries. He is soon accused of a crime that has no logical explanation.

In Doug White's first novel, The Load: An Over-the-Road Mystery, protagonist Jake Winters takes readers on an unforgettable ride as a cross-country truck driver who finds himself in unusual trouble. Against the beautiful backdrop of the U.S. West, White - who also happens to be an over-the-road trucker - crafts a baffling thriller about an unusual load that mysteriously disappears from a sealed trailer.

We first meet Winters behind the wheel of his Freightliner as he is being pulled over by the Department of Transportation and the FBI. Initially he is simply curious about the situation, certain the authorities have no real business with him. But then he learns that his sealed trailer is empty, when it should have been holding a 4,000-lb. piece of mining equipment. And the chief suspect in the case of the missing crusher is none other than he!

In the days before, Winters had taken a harrowing drive up a mountain road to J and J Mines in Slippery Gulch. He encounters several people in the old West town, including a small boy and the crusty owner of the mine. Winters chalks up an obvious lack of modern amenities to the isolated location of the town. But when the mine owner is mystified by the ballpoint pen Winters presents to sign the paperwork, even the easygoing trucker begins to question the situation.

Be sure to read the second book in this series: The Editorial!