Secret of the Gold Sovereign — Michael Don Anderson

Fourteen-year-old Anderson Doyle is a poor, but intelligent teenager in California's Central Valley in 1954. When his older brother's best friend is killed, bludgeoned to death with a baseball bat and an undocumented field-worker, Manuel Martinez, is blamed, Anderson finds himself involved in trying to find the real killer.

Anderson is torn between two girls, the beautiful Juana, Manny's twin sister; and Guinevere, the athletic and unflappable rich girl, both of them helping him solve the murder. But while trying to figure out who committed the crime, Anderson discovers horrible truths about his brother and possible motives for the murder.

Was it about sex or was it about the mysterious British Gold Sovereign that the murdered boy had been seen with on the very day he had been killed? But even more importantly to Anderson, was the question, would he find the killer before anyone else died?

Anderson Doyle is a historical work of fiction with some adult themes and may not be suitable for younger readers.