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!