The Greatest Prospector in the World

This earnest novel, subtitled A Business Parable, incorporates Dunn’s (Being the Change) six general guiding principles for attaining wealth and success while telling the story of a family of prospectors during the Alaskan gold rush at the turn of the previous century. Sixteen-year-old Laura Dunagan leaves Fairbanks, Ala., after her father, Billy, dies in a gold mining mishap. Her affluent Uncle Joe has assumed guardianship over Laura and takes her and her older brother, Matthew, with him to his Chicago mansion. Despite Laura’s reluctance to leave the Alaskan frontier, she settles into her new urban home, graduates from college, and gets a job as a door-to-door saleswoman peddling sewing machines for the Singer company. While she makes her way in her new profession and suffers setbacks, Uncle Joe gives her pep talks, imparting each of the six family secrets for becoming “the greatest prospector in the world.” Laura applies the lessons and makes amazing business sales while falling in love with her future husband, Frank Roheny, a real estate agent and attorney. Dunn’s satisfying, well-paced tale successfully blends fiction and his principles of business. (Oct.)