Link to replay of Quabbin novel presentation

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. 

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Last December, I gave a Zoom PowerPoint presentation on the historical background of my novel Beside the Still Waters.

Here's a link to the replay of this talk for the Amherst (Massachusetts) Historical Society. 

Forest Park ponds - Springfield, Massachusetts

 A postcard view of the lily ponds at Forest Park, Springfield, Massachusetts, possibly from the 1920s.

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Jacqueline T. Lynch is the author of States of Mind: New England; 

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

The Ames Manufacturing Company of Chicopee, Massachusetts; 

Beside the Still Waters (a novel of the Quabbin Reservoir towns); 

and the Double V Mysteries series of novels set around New England in the early 1950s.

The Barney Mausoleum - Springfield, Massachusetts

Two postcard views of the Barney mausoleum in Forest Park, Springfield, Massachusetts.  The first, a photo from 1909; and the second, an illustration from the 1930s.  Inventor and industrialist Everett Hosmer Barney (1835-1916) was probably most famous for two things: inventing the clamp-on ice skate, and for the donation of 178 acres of his extensive estate to be added to Forest Park in the city of Springfield, Massachusetts.

In 1892, Everett Barney constructed this granite and marble mausoleum for his son on a Laurel Hill, near his Victorian mansion, which we discussed in this previous post. The mausoleum is the final resting place of Everett Hosmer Barney, his wife Eliza Jane Knowles Barney, and their son, George Murray Barney. The mausoleum has two sets of stairs leading up to a temple with twelve pink marble Ionic columns. 

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Jacqueline T. Lynch is the author of Comedy and Tragedy on the Mountain: 70 Years of Summer Theatre on Mt. Tom, Holyoke, Massachusetts; States of Mind: New England (collected essays from this blog); The Ames Manufacturing Company of Chicopee, Massachusetts; and Beside the Still Waters - a novel on the construction of the Quabbin Reservoir.

Mystery series set in post-War New England - the Double V Mysteries

 

Looking for Christmas gifts for the historical mystery lover -- who also happens to love New England?  

My "Double V Mysteries" series is set in New England, beginning in the spring of 1949.  The two main characters -- who will become partners -- are introduced in CADMIUM YELLOW, BLOOD RED.  She is an administrator at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Connecticut, who has just discovered her husband's infidelity.

He is an ex-con, recently released from the state penitentiary in Wethersfield, Connecticut.  His wife has passed away and his daughter is kidnapped, but the gang who has her assures him she will be returned if he helps them with his particular specialty. He must break into the Wadsworth.  She meets him on his practice run as he literally drops into her office, the same night her husband is found murdered.

They are both suspects.  They have nobody to rely on but each other.  And each has a mystery to solve.

The book is available in paperback through Amazon, but the eBook version is FREE and available through a variety of online shops:

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Apple

And a variety of other online shops here.

Give it a try and perhaps you'll like to continue the adventures with Juliet Van Allen and Elmer Vartanian -- the "Double V" duo -- in the rest of the (so far) five-book series:

SPEAK OUT BEFORE YOU DIE (in which a murder occurs in a snowbound mansion in Hartford on New Year's Eve, 1949)

Here at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other online shops.

DISMOUNT AND MURDER (Nasty doings at the Litchfield, Connecticut, horse show, summer of 1950.  Maine recovers from the year before in the "Summer Maine Burned," Oh, and a murder.)

Here at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other online shops.

WHITEWASH IN THE BERKSHIRES (Juliet is blacklisted during the Communist witch hunts. Intrigue and kidnapping in an underground bunker in the Berkshire Mountains of western Massachusetts in the winter of 1951.  Oh, and a murder.)

Here at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other online shops.

MURDER AT THE SUMMER THEATER (Juliet must join the cast to help ferret out clues in backstage shenanigans in the summer of 1951 on the Connecticut shore when the lead actress goes missing. Possibly murdered.)

Here at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other online shops.

Follow the adventure, follow the clues, and watch this blog for the next novel in the series coming in late 2022!

Upcoming Zoom talk on BESIDE THE STILL WATERS - Quabbin Reservoir towns, Massachusetts

 

Zoom presentation on
BESIDE THE STILL WATERS - the "lost towns" of the Quabbin Reservoir

I will be giving an online Zoom presentation for the Amherst (Massachusetts) Historical Society on the historical background for my novel, Beside the Still Waters, about the towns that were demolished to create the Quabbin Reservoir in central Massachusetts.

 
The story is about community and the loss of community, and how our hometowns make up a big part of our family heritage and our personal identities. 
 
Photos and map images will accompany the talk, which will be part of the Society’s “History Bites Lunchtime Lecture Series”, Friday, December 3, 2021 from 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. 
 
Join the Zoom presentation through this link:
 
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84485731584#success

See you there! 

Beside the Still Waters is available in eBook or print at these online shops:
 
Amazon
 
Barnes & Noble
 
Try this universal link for Apple, Baker & Taylor, SCRBD, Tolino, and more!

Lizzie Borden and George D. Robinson - the Trial of the Century - upcoming talk - Chicopee, Massachusetts

The infamous Lizzie Borden, who was said in the children's rhyme to have "took an axe and gave her mother 40 whacks...etc.," was defended at her trial by Chicopee's own George D. Robinson, former Governor of Massachusetts. I'll be presenting a talk for the Chicopee Historical Society on Lizzie Borden and George D. Robinson in the very first "Trial of the Century" on Wednesday, October 20, 2021 at 6:30 p.m., in the Community Room of the Chicopee Public Library, 449 Front Street, Chicopee. The event is free and open to the public. Please note: masks are required.

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Jacqueline T. Lynch is the author of Comedy and Tragedy on the Mountain: 70 Years of Summer Theatre on Mt. Tom, Holyoke, Massachusetts; States of Mind: New England (collected essays from this blog); The Ames Manufacturing Company of Chicopee, Massachusetts; and Beside the Still Waters - a novel on the construction of the Quabbin Reservoir.

Hampton Ponds, Westfield, Massachusetts

 

Hampton Ponds, Westfield, Massachusetts, from a postcard published in the early 1900s.  Today, the Hampton Ponds State Park now borders the southern shore.  

Do you have memories of spending summers at Hampton Ponds?

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Jacqueline T. Lynch is the author of Comedy and Tragedy on the Mountain: 70 Years of Summer Theatre on Mt. Tom, Holyoke, Massachusetts; States of Mind: New England (collected essays from this blog); The Ames Manufacturing Company of Chicopee, Massachusetts; and Beside the Still Waters - a novel on the construction of the Quabbin Reservoir.