Contents
The Blackwater Cipher
A Treasure-Hunt Thriller
W. D. Evervale
Illustrated digital edition · 2026
Copyright
Copyright © 2026 W. D. Evervale
All rights reserved to the extent permitted by applicable law.
First digital edition · 2026
This is a work of fiction. Nora Bell, Eli Mercer, Mercy Cade, the Blackwater collection, the criminals, businesses, properties, and events of the treasure hunt are invented. Real places and selected historical events provide the setting. No wrongdoing is attributed to any actual institution or property owner.
The chamber beneath Mud Island, tunnel below the Mississippi, shafts descending miles beneath the river floor, and the Cathedral treasure cave are speculative inventions. Their geology, scale, engineering, access points, and emergency systems are not descriptions of real infrastructure.
Production credit: AI-generated text, cover, and fifty individual chapter illustrations, created under the direction of W. D. Evervale. Illustration direction: cinematic realistic painterly adventure scenes in bronze, gold, and deep teal, with recurring adult protagonists.
Prepared as an independent digital edition for Kindle-compatible reading. This file has not been published to Amazon or approved by Kindle Direct Publishing.
Contents
Title Page
Copyright
1. The Woman at the Auction
2. A Map That Lied
3. The Man with River Hands
4. The Jar beneath Jackson
5. What the Mud Remembered
6. The Knife and the Ledger
7. A Room above the Rain
8. The False Paymaster
9. Dollar Hill
10. Three Empty Graves
11. The Price of Permission
12. Fire in the Archive
13. A Woman Named Mercy
14. The Crossing
15. Gold Dust and Blood
16. The Deal at Randolph
17. One Bed, Two Histories
18. The Letter in the Hem
19. The Fever Year
20. The Ruby That Wasn’t
21. North to the Lake
22. Lester’s Landing
23. The Farrington Story
24. The Boat without Lights
25. Under the Cypress Knees
26. The First Chest
27. A Ring without a Bride
28. The Sister Who Stayed
29. The Name beneath the Name
30. What They Took
31. The Auctioneer’s Daughter
32. A Beautiful Betrayal
33. A Gun on the Table
34. The Storm House
35. Love Is a Verb
36. The Wrong Landing
37. A Promise in Wax
38. The Dead Man’s Share
39. The Flood Line
40. The Vault of Ordinary Things
41. The Jewels of the Living
42. No Such Thing as Clean Gold
43. The Man Who Bought Silence
44. The River Opens
45. Leave the Treasure
46. The Last Boat
47. The Ledger Survives
48. What Belongs to Whom
49. The Long Way Home
50. What the River Gives Back
Historical Note and Sources
Cover
Contents
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