South End gold mines and retirement drama fuel Charlotte author's new novel
Drawing on true Charlotte history, 'recovering trial lawyer' Landis Wade crafts a thriller rooted in gold and betrayal
The following article appeared in the Oct. 17, 2025, edition of The Charlotte Ledger, an e-newsletter with smart and original local news for Charlotte. We offer free and paid subscription plans. More info here.
Art imitates life? New novel set in Charlotte features characters living in financially troubled east Charlotte retirement community
A Charlotte author has a new novel that seems inspired by recent headlines and 19th-century local history, about financial shenanigans at an east Charlotte retirement community and gold mines in South End.
Landis Wade, a self-described “recovering trial lawyer” who has written a dozen other books, tells us that his latest, called “Deadly Gold Rush,” is a follow-up to his 2022 novel “Deadly Declarations,” which explored the Revolutionary period.
Both are set in modern-day Charlotte and feature residents of the “Independence Retirement Community,” known as “The Indie.” The plot of the latest work involves the body of a real estate developer found in a collapsed mine shaft and threats to the financial health of The Indie and its residents because of investments that have gone bad.
While fictional, The Indie seems to resemble a true-life Charlotte retirement community that recently faced financial challenges. The Indie is described in “Deadly Declarations” as fronting a lake and sharing a property line with the “Hezekiah Alexander Rock House,” which is “the jewel of the Queen City History Museum.”
As it so happens, the real-life Hezekiah Alexander House, which is part of the Charlotte Museum of History, borders Aldersgate, a retirement community on a lake and that, according to regular coverage in The Charlotte Ledger, encountered financial strain following a housing venture that didn’t pan out.
Wade doesn’t deny that The Indie is based on Aldersgate but says that the financial troubles are “not quite the same.”
The real-life Aldersgate, whose finances had been under state supervision after having difficulty paying vendors and issuing refunds to residents and their families, joined forces with senior living organization Givens Communities this year to get on more stable footing.
Wade’s previous novel drew on the history of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, a historically disputed document that is said to have declared independence from Britain more than a year before the Declaration of Independence. This one explores the history of the Carolina Gold Rush.
“I just had this idea that I hadn’t seen any novels that worked in the Gold Rush period in Charlotte, and I thought it would be fun to help people know more about the Charlotte Gold Rush,” he said. He said he talked with local historians Dan Morrill and Tom Hanchett, as well as Charlotte Mecklenburg Library’s Shelia Bumgarner (recently retired), about that period.
In the 1830s, more than 80 gold mines operated in Mecklenburg County, including several in what is today known as South End.
“I never knew when I was watching a Panthers game that there was a gold mine sitting underneath it,” Wade said.
The novel also features the Charlotte history of gold coins and the U.S. Mint branch, as well as “some chase scenes involving the Mint Museum on Randolph Road.”
“Deadly Gold Rush” is available for Amazon Kindle pre-orders and is set for publication in March 2026. —Tony Mecia
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