If you simply want to read a fun, pulpy, weird-western story please skip this introduction. If you’re interested in going down a twisty rabbit hole, by all means read this introduction first.
The Austin Job was where it all started for me. Two years after receiving my research and teaching post at the historic University of Texicas campus, I discovered a tattered, old paperback tucked into my book bag. Upon opening it, I discovered a first edition of The Austin Job, published 1929.
Honestly, I thought it a gift from my daughter. Only after her kidnapping and the ensuing events did I realize exactly what The Austin Job, along with the rest of the Lost DMB Files, represented. Laugh if you must, but I worked for two years out of the very same office referenced in the story. I’ve seen the passageway and underground facility. But that’s another story.
While most consider David Mark Brown, IV and the Truth in History Society to be mild-mannered terrorists and/or irrelevant conspiracists (I would have agreed until recently), I now know differently. Thus I’ve accepted the challenge of seeking out, editing, and organizing the obscure and forgotten works of David Mark Brown.
Due to the polished nature of The Austin Job in its original published form, editing has been a relatively simple task. When possible I’ve replaced pseudonyms with their historical counterparts. For example, James Starr appeared as Junior Corona (cute) in the original text. No doubt Brown would have been hunted earlier and more fiercely by the mysterious individuals he refers to as The Benefactors if he’d been transparent about such well known public figures.
And so without further ado, I let the reader decide for her or himself. Is there more to this roisterous, pulpy thriller than meets the eye? Finally, be forewarned, becoming lost in these “lost” files and the world they reconstruct is difficult to resist. May what once was lost now be found.
Professor Jim “Buck” Buckner