Burning Daylight

Summary

A titan forged in permafrost—raw knuckles, frostbitten breath, auroras dancing in his pupils—Burning Daylight claws nuggets the size of musket balls from the Yukon’s white throat and rides south on a white stallion of optimism. The Klondike’s howling emptiness has taught him only one grammar: dig, sweat, own. Manhattan’s spires, however, speak a crueller tongue of ledgers, lobbies, lacquered smiles. In a mahogany casino scented with Cuban smoke, a cabal of silk-clad hyenas skin him of every glinting coin; the titan awakens penniless on a bench, newspaper for a blanket, the Statue of Liberty’s torch reduced to a mocking matchstick. Yet the same ice that once rimed his beard now crystallizes resolve: he will learn the predators’ choreography, beat the carnivores at their own carnivorous waltz, and ascend once more—this time with blood under his fingernails and a grin sharp enough to slice throats in the dark.

Synopsis

An adventurer, who goes by the nickname "Burning Daylight", strikes it rich during the Alaskan Gold Rush. After he achieves wealth and success in the Klondike, he sets out towards 'the lower 48' (the continental U.S.) to find new challenges, but his money making abilities do not prepare him for the vicious cons and manipulation of Wall Street. He is soon cheated out of his entire fortune, but the 'hero' now has learned the lessons 'of the street', and fights to become a success again, with the knowledge that it takes a scoundrel to beat a scoundrel.