Dismount and Murder - set in the green hills of Litchfield, Connecticut

This is to show off a brand-new cover for DISMOUNT AND MURDER, the third book in my Double V Mysteries series.  Here's the blurb:

"A wealthy estate owner is found dead of a heart attack after his morning horseback ride. But his son suspects murder. Is the killer his young stepmother? His jealous wife? The surly stable groom? The trusted lawyer? Or did the butler do it?

Juliet Van Allen and Elmer Vartanian, partners in the business of ferreting out murderers, are called to the green hills of Litchfield, Connecticut, in the summer of 1950. It is the eve of the annual horse show, and with the mansion full of glittering guests at the opening ball, the estate is full of suspects.

Dismount and Murder is the third book in the Double V Mysteries series set in post-World War II New England.

If you like the romance and charm of a classic film, this “cozy noir” will remind you of an era when character-driven stories were elegant, subtle—and where greed rears its ugly head over a silver tray of hors d'oeuvres in a ballroom of intrigue or under a caterer’s tent on the lawn, while sipping a champagne cocktail.

It’s murder among the horsey set as the pace quickens, and there’s danger in the paddock for sleuths who don’t listen to warnings."



The book, and the first two in the series: Cadmium Yellow, Blood Red and Speak Out Before You Die, are now all available in hardcover as well as paperback from Amazon, and also paperback and hardcover with dust jacket from Ingram.  Your local bookstore or library can order these books wholesale through Ingram, but the link I'm including here is just for you, a direct retail link.

From Amazon, here in paperback.
From Amazon, here in hardcover.
From Amazon, here in eBook.

Also available in eBook here at this universal link from Barnes & Noble, Apple, and a variety of other online merchants.

From Ingram, here in paperback.
From Ingram, here in hardcover with dust jacket.

Just in time for the holiday season, these books will make great gifts for the readers on your list, or even you.

Chicopee in the Revolutionary War - Chicopee, Massachusetts

TONIGHT - CHICOPEE IN THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR!

I'll be giving a presentation for the Chicopee Historical Society on Chicopee’s experience during the Revolutionary War. The soldiers from Chicopee Street, the settlement of Skipmuck (future Chicopee Falls) and the area of what is now Chicopee Center were all the northernmost part of Springfield. Several men and boys marched to Boston when news of the Battle of Lexington and Concord was brought by a post rider the next day.

Their enlistments, their battles, and their stories will be discussed tonight, Wednesday, September 16, 2026, at 6:30 p.m. in the Bazan Community Room of the Chicopee Public Library, 449 Front Street, Chicopee. The event is free and open to the public.


Photo of Moses Bliss grave, and top photo, Old Burying Ground, Chicopee Street by JT Lynch

******************

Jacqueline T. Lynch is the author of:

The Ames Manufacturing Company of Chicopee, Massachusetts - A Northern Factory Town's Perspective on the Civil War;   

Comedy and Tragedy on the Mountain: 70 Years of Summer Theatre on Mt. Tom, Holyoke, Massachusetts;

States of Mind: New England, essays from New England Travels

A Tragic Toast to Christmas -- The Infamous Wood Alcohol Deaths of 1919 in Chicopee, Mass.; as well as books on classic films and several novels.  

Her Double V Mysteries series is set in New England in the early 1950s.  

Most of her books can be purchased at Bookshop.org here, as well as most online shops.

Or follow the links on her website to many online shops - www.JacquelineTLynch.com.

TO JOIN HER MAILING LIST - follow this link for a free book as a thank-you for joining.

Boston Post Road marker - Springfield, Massachusetts

 

This postcard from about 1909 shows one of the mile markers on the Boston Post Road in Springfield, Mass.: "This Stone is Erected by Joseph Wait, Esq., of Brookfield For the Benefit of Travllers AD 1763."

The postcard was printed in Germany by the Robbins Bros. Company of Boston.

******************

Jacqueline T. Lynch is the author of:

The Ames Manufacturing Company of Chicopee, Massachusetts - A Northern Factory Town's Perspective on the Civil War;   

Comedy and Tragedy on the Mountain: 70 Years of Summer Theatre on Mt. Tom, Holyoke, Massachusetts;

States of Mind: New England, essays from New England Travels

A Tragic Toast to Christmas -- The Infamous Wood Alcohol Deaths of 1919 in Chicopee, Mass.; as well as books on classic films and several novels.  

Her Double V Mysteries series is set in New England in the early 1950s.  

Most of her books can be purchased at Bookshop.org here, as well as most online shops.

TO JOIN HER MAILING LIST - follow this link for a free book as a thank-you for joining.

Railroad Hobby Show - West Springfield, Massachusetts

 

photo by JT Lynch

All tracks lead to the Railroad Hobby Show this weekend on the grounds of the Eastern States Exposition in West Springfield, Mass.  The nation's largest model train show is hosted by the Amherst Railway Society.  Learn more here at their website.

******************

Jacqueline T. Lynch is the author of:

The Ames Manufacturing Company of Chicopee, Massachusetts - A Northern Factory Town's Perspective on the Civil War;   

Comedy and Tragedy on the Mountain: 70 Years of Summer Theatre on Mt. Tom, Holyoke, Massachusetts;

States of Mind: New England, essays from New England Travels

A Tragic Toast to Christmas -- The Infamous Wood Alcohol Deaths of 1919 in Chicopee, Mass.; as well as books on classic films and several novels.  

Her Double V Mysteries series is set in New England in the early 1950s.  

Most of her books can be purchased at Bookshop.org here, as well as most online shops.

TO JOIN HER MAILING LIST - follow this link for a free book as a thank-you for joining.

Dickinson Library - Northfield, Mass.

Architecture of the nineteenth century, in public buildings--as well as in many of the private homes of the wealthier class, represented more than practical form and function.  There were monuments.  Most of them were quite beautiful and such structures that remain today grace their communities with a sense of history, heritage, and art.

Even in small towns they remain impressive, and were usually the gift of benefactors.  Above is a postcard published by A.R. Levering of East Northfield dating from about 1903 of the Dickinson Library in Northfield, Massachusetts.  It was gift of  Fitchburg shoe manufacturer Elijah Marsh Dickinson (1816-1902), who was born in West Northfield, left the farm as young man to make his way in the burgeoning Industrial Revolution of nineteenth-century Massachusetts, eventually found success with his E.M. Dickinson Shoe Co., and was able to support his old hometown with this excellent gift.

The Romanesque style was built of granite and limestone, and was dedicated in 1898.  It allowed space for museum rooms, and as with most libraries, became a focal point of the community and a source of pride.

It still serves the community of Northfield.

******************

Jacqueline T. Lynch is the author of:

The Ames Manufacturing Company of Chicopee, Massachusetts - A Northern Factory Town's Perspective on the Civil War;   

Comedy and Tragedy on the Mountain: 70 Years of Summer Theatre on Mt. Tom, Holyoke, Massachusetts;

States of Mind: New England, essays from New England Travels

A Tragic Toast to Christmas -- The Infamous Wood Alcohol Deaths of 1919 in Chicopee, Mass.; as well as books on classic films and several novels.  

Her Double V Mysteries series is set in New England in the early 1950s.  

Most of her books can be purchased at Bookshop.org here, as well as most online shops.

TO JOIN HER MAILING LIST - follow this link for a free book as a thank-you for joining.

5th Anniversary of Treason and a Failed Coup

Never forget January 6th.  Hold it in the same vein of warning, mourning, and determination to right the wrong as we do with September 11th or December 7th.  It might even be more important, as the enemy within is more dangerous to our democracy.

The morons who were whipped to a frenzy to attack the Capitol, assault police, threaten to kill the Vice President and several in our government, and as if to punctuate their disgusting nature, to defecate in the halls of that hallowed building that President Abraham Lincoln was determined to finish even during the Civil War as a symbol of our survival as a nation -- they have been pardoned by the Felon, the lead traitor.

Now it's time to pursue him and the others who orchestrated the conspiracy, the ones who engineered the attack.  Be a patriot and watch Special Prosecutor Jack Smith's testimony.  Push your government to prosecute the traitors.

Books on New England history for your holiday shopping!

Here is a selection of my books that tell stories of New England history.  Please consider them when shopping for your book lover/history fan!

BESIDE THE STILL WATERS - a novel on the "lost towns" of the Quabbin Reservoir in central Massachusetts.  Four towns…dismantled as an entire valley is prepared to be flooded. The past is being wiped clean, the present threatens, the future belongs to the fearless.

Three generations weave a tapestry of isolation and stubborn independence, battling the forces of nature, the Commonwealth, and each other in this family saga. A courageous girl becomes the guardian of her family’s heritage, and ultimately, the one to determine what happens next.

Beside the Still Waters is based on actual events that displaced four entire towns in central Massachusetts in the 1920s and 1930s for the construction of the Quabbin Reservoir. Families are torn apart, divided between those who protest the construction, those who give up and leave while they can, and those who help to build the dam that will flood the towns.

Return to the Swift River Valley, its charm and its pain, its mysteries and its lessons—to a community, a family, and a young woman in a race against time.

A TRAGIC TOAST TO CHRISTMAS - The Infamous 1919 Wood Alcohol Deaths in Chicopee, Massachusetts.  Non-fiction.  More than 100 people died of a companionable drink in several towns and cities in New England on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day 1919, nearly half of them in the city of Chicopee, Massachusetts. How this came to happen, and even how it came to be forgotten are both intriguing aspects to the tragedy.

The story of the grisly incident of unknowingly ingesting poisonous wood alcohol and how it played out in one New England city might stand as a microcosm of the conflict created between the legal production and sale of alcohol, those who would prohibit it, and those who would do anything to profit from it, not only in the years up to 1919, but in the tumultuous decade that followed.

COMEDY AND TRAGEDY ON THE MOUNTAIN - 70 Years of Summer Theatre on Mt. Tom, Holyoke, Massachusetts.  Non-fiction.  The book covers the history of summer theatre on Mt. Tom from1895 to 1965.  For some seventy years the playhouse created magic on the mountain above the city; from vaudeville, operetta, WPA-sponsored shows in the Great Depression, and its heyday from 1941 to 1962 with a resident repertory company called The Valley Players.  In the early 1960s, two new incarnations: The Casino-in-the-Park, and finally, the Mt. Tom Playhouse with touring packaged shows featuring well-known stars from television and movies.  Many stars of stage and screen, and many newcomers who would one day become stars, performed over several decades on Mt. Tom.  Through interviews, newspaper reviews, and nearly 250 photographs, relive their performances, and go backstage for personal experiences that were both comic and tragic, and enjoy again the excitement of opening night.

THE AMES MANUFACTURING COMPANY OF CHICOPEE, MASSACHUSETTS - A Northern Factory Town's Perspective on the Civil War.  Non-fiction.  The three articles that comprise this book tell different stories about the Ames Manufacturing Company of Chicopee, Massachusetts, which played an important role as an arms manufacturer during the American Civil War.  Together, they make up a kind of composite of the Northern Civil War experience in the small, but dynamic, universe of a factory town.  We meet Nathan P. Ames and James T. Ames, brothers who founded the firm, the younger burdened with the responsibility after the tragic and grisly death of the older.

We meet two workers in the factory, one of whom, Charles Tracy, was a machinist who left his position to join the army, and came home without a leg—and was awarded the Medal of Honor.  He was cared for by Clara Barton--and comforted by President Abraham Lincoln on a visit to his hospital ward. The other man, Melzar Mosman, just a boy of nineteen, worked in the foundry department forging canon.  He also left to join the army, but after the war would become celebrated for forging bronze statuary, including a number of Civil War monuments.

We meet the townspeople of Chicopee, the minister who hid slaves on the local Underground Railroad, and the high school principal, who purchased a military substitute to fight in his place.  Later, he would become Governor of Massachusetts and the successful defense lawyer of the infamous Lizzie Borden.

 

And for mystery buffs, the Double V Mysteries Series set in New England in the late 1940s through the early 1950s (so far).

CADMIUM YELLOW, BLOOD RED - an heiress and an ex-con team up to solve a murder and discover much more.  Hartford, Connecticut, spring 1949.

SPEAK OUT BEFORE YOU DIE - the couple reunite to solve a mystery during a New Year's Eve house party in Hartford, 1949.

DISMOUNT AND MURDER - the now dynamic duo are involved in a scandal at a horse show in Litchfield, Connecticut, and Bar Harbor, Maine, summer 1950.

WHITEWASH IN THE BERKSHIRES - kidnapping and communist witch hunts lead to a discovery of murder in western Massachusetts, winter 1951.

MURDER AT THE SUMMER THEATER - a cast member goes missing at a playhouse on the Connecticut shore, summer 1951.

THE IRON LUNG MYSTERY - they are called to the Boston area to solve two mysterious deaths and find a family saga of treachery and treason,  summer 1951.

THE LITTLE ENGINE THAT KILLED - our sleuthing duo is brought to Chicopee, Massachusetts to investigate an old crime of embezzlement and scramble to prevent a murder. Christmas 1951.

All these books are available in eBook or print and can be found online at Barnes & Noble, Amazon,  Apple, and many other online shops.

Bookshop.org is "An online bookstore that financially supports local independent bookstores and gives back to the book community."  A portion of your online purchase will be donated to a fund supporting independent booksellers, and you can even request that the portion donated from your purchase will go to a specific, favorite local bookstore.  They also have a database on their site that will help you to find local independent bookstores in your area.

I'm very pleased to note that my print books are available from my page here at Bookshop.org 

For eBooks, please see my Shopify store page here.

For another option to purchase my print books, please see my Walmart page.

For more information and links to purchase, please visit my website:  JacquelineTLynch.com.

Thank you!