{"product_id":"the-iron-meridian-robert-walker-9798254964926","title":"The Iron Meridian: Thorne \u0026 Linus: Cartographic Mysteries - Book 5","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA dead surveyor. A corrupted compass. And buried iron that points to murder.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNevada Territory, 1882. Surveyor Virgil Peck is found face-up on the alkali flats east of Furnace Creek - no water, no hat, no horse, and a shattered compass at his side. The coroner rules it exposure. The desert, after all, doesn't require malice.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSilas Thorne knows better.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHired to verify Peck's railroad survey, Silas and his partner Linus arrive in a town built around a water tower and controlled by a man who owns every spring in the basin. The survey should be routine. But Silas's theodolite finds a four-degree compass error at every monument - an error that shifts the section boundaries just far enough to place three desert springs on the wrong side of a barbed-wire fence.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eSomeone buried iron in the ground to make the compass lie. And someone killed the man who found it.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWith a telegraph operator whose memory files every face and every message, a rancher whose cattle haven't reached water in fourteen months, and a railroad superintendent who needs the survey settled before the tracks arrive, Silas must excavate the fraud one monument at a time - using the sun to prove what the compass cannot.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBut the deeper Silas digs, the closer the case cuts to his own search for his missing father. A telegram from eighteen months ago bears the name \u003ci\u003eContinental Surveying Associates\u003c\/i\u003e - an echo of the firm his father founded and that vanished when he did. The trail and the commission are no longer running parallel. They're running through each other.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe Iron Meridian\u003c\/b\u003e is the fifth book in the \u003cb\u003eThorne \u0026amp; Linus: Cartographic Mysteries\u003c\/b\u003e series. Each book is a complete, standalone mystery. Series readers will find the deeper story they've been following since Promise Creek.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eFor readers who love historical mysteries with real frontier settings, fair-play puzzles, and the partnership of two men who measure the truth for a living.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Robert Walker\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9798254964926\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Independently Published\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 04\/04\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 252\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.68lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.63d","brand":"Robert Walker","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":49097301426431,"sku":"9798254964926","price":15.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/the-iron-meridian-robert-walker-9798254964926","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}