Sometimes, it’s not the grand betrayals that break a community—it’s the small ones. The kind that start over pocket change, pride, or, in this case, a mere two hundred dollars.
In All for a Buck by Doris Anne Beaulieu, a logging job in a tight-knit town sparks more than competition—it ignites a chain of events that ends in death. Two bids come in close for the same woodlot contract. The winner gets the work, the loser gets nothing. On paper, it’s business. But for one man, losing by $200 becomes a personal war.
The man who wins the bid is no stranger to hard work. A Vietnam veteran, he’s fought to rebuild a life after the war—fought for steady income, dignity, and a bit of peace. He knows the land, knows the mill’s needs, and earns the job honestly. But in a small town, honesty doesn’t shield you from envy.
When a local game warden disappears during hunting season, suspicion spreads like wildfire. Whispers in diners, side glances at the grocery store—it’s the kind of quiet judgment that burns slow but deep. And when evidence surfaces at the mill where the veteran’s logs are processed, the blame seems ready-made.
What makes this story sting is how easily greed can turn into something darker. The losing bidder doesn’t just want the work—he wants to undo the man who got it. And in his bitterness, he sets in motion an act that will cost someone their life and stain the whole town with suspicion.
Beaulieu doesn’t tell it like a simple whodunit. She lets us feel the ripple effects: the fear in a town that depends on the mill’s paychecks, the humiliation of a man wrongfully accused, the weight of a murder investigation stretching on for months. And when the truth finally breaks—that the victim, the warden, was caught in the wrong place at the wrong time—what’s left is a hollow victory. The killer gets prison time, but the trust that once knitted neighbors together has frayed.
Two hundred dollars. That’s all it took to set off a betrayal that wrecked lives, shut down a mill, and left a community questioning how well they really know each other. All for a Buck isn’t just about murder—it’s about the quiet poison of resentment, and how small-town pride, once cracked, can never quite be mended the same way again.
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