During our recent annual vacation in Maine, we made our second visit to the Railway Museum to entertain my five-year-old grandson. He was four when we first visited and doesn’t remember much about that visit. The museum has a vintage train, powered by coal and steam, and two original train stations. The one you see here from the back, the Freeport Station was built in 1912 and moved in 1964, 39.2 miles from Freeport to Boothbay, over the Kennebec River. Here you can see the steam powered engine and the carriage car. View inside the carriage car. We sat in an open air car at the back, the better to enjoy the views. The chairs inside were small!             The second station, the Thorndike Station, is located halfway around the large circle of the narrow track on which the train takes its passengers for a ride. The station was built in 1871 for the Belfast & Moosehead Lake Railroad. Here you can see the steam-powered engine and the carriage car.             The circular track surrounds the village, which contains artifacts from Maine’s railroad history as well as historical structures from the 1800s and 1900s that were moved to the site. There is also a goat enclosure with two very friendly goats named Coal and Tender. See 16 on the map.             The Boothbay Town Hall is the oldest structure on the green, moved there in 1990. Built in 1847 for $700, it is a good example of Greek Revival style and has a magnificent open room with a gorgeous floor, still used for meetings.             The Spruce Point Chapel was built in 1923 and relocated to the museum in 1995.             The fire station houses the 1925 Cosmopolitan fire truck and a 1929 hook and ladder from Boothbay Harbor. From Take Me 2 Maine But by far, my favorite place to visit is the antique auto museum. There I found a 1930 Model A phaeton, which was the first car I owned (no, I’m not that old!) and it’s color is the same as my car.  I’d love to have one again. I could go on and on about the filling station, the blacksmith shop, the general store, etc. but I wanted to give you a taste of a really great place to visit. We were very happy that we managed to do our tour earlier than three tour buses and the day before a fall fair on the village green that had cars parked everywhere. Tompkins Filling station, originally from East Boothbay From Take Me 2 Maine Maine’s Merci car, from 1880. Presented in 1949 by the people of France to the people of Maine, this is one of 49 antique boxcars filled with gifts of gratitude for the donations of relief goods sent to France in 1948, “40 & 8” boxcars like this one were used to carry 40 men or 8 horses during WWI. The village green. I highly recommend that if you are in this area, you make a morning of it at this museum! 1 0

Peter “Wolf” Toth is an American sculptor born in Hungary, who immigrated to Ohio and studied art at Ohio University. Beginning in 1971, he created a series of large sculptures to honor Native Americans. His first was made of stone, carved into a sandstone cliff in La Jolla, California, a six-foot-high Native American head. It took him three months. His goal became to create a sculpture in each state.  Toth donates his time and effort to each sculpture, and the communities typically provide the large log or timber used for the carving.  The statues vary in size, with some of  the largest towering over 40 feet tall,  with most ranging from 15 to 40 feet. From the Winslow Mail, Thursday, January 3, 1980, Peter Toth carving a 3000 pound log Ponderosa pine to create this 20 foot tall statue. From Roadside Arizona He sculpted his second large contribution to his Trail of the Whispering Giants series, in his hometown of Akron, Ohio. Carved from Kentucky red oak, Rotaynah was removed in the fall of 2018 due to extreme deterioration, but the face of the sculpture was saved and is currently in storage. Rotaynah Since then he has completed a statue in each of the 50 states, and in several provinces of Canada, and some states, such as Florida, now have more than one sculpture. His mission was completed in May 1988, when he finished sculpture #58 in Hawaii. Instead of a Native American figure, like the other Whispering Giants, Toth opted to carve a statue of a Polynesian for the Hawaiian islands. That statue has since decayed, I first discovered a Whispering Giant in a recent trip to Plymouth, Massachusetts, where I encountered Enisketomp, standing beside Highway 3, Exit 5, in front of a McDonald’s of all places. Carved in 1983, this giant is named from the Wampanoag word for “human being” and is designated as a gift to the people of Massachusetts. Enisketomp. Wikimedia “I study the Indians of the area, then visualize an Indian within the log. It is a composite of all the native people of the state.”  A quote from Peter Toth. This Whispering Giant is pictured on a postcard, dedicated in October 0f 1981. The material is Sitka spruce and the Lakota Sioux Nation contributed to the sculpture. “I study the Indians of the area, then visualize an Indian within the log. It is a composite of all the native people of the state.”  A quote from Peter Toth. Seneca, found in Seneca, Mercer County, Pennsylvania (Wikipedia) On Gwe Ohn Whe, New York (Wikipedia) Calostimucu, Punta Gorda, Florida (Wikipedia)                                  Peter Toth 0 0

I was honored to find this review from one of my blogging buddies and a fellow teacher, Pete Springer. As a fan of historical fiction and having read The Last Pilgrim by Noelle Granger, I snatched up Daniel Boone and Me as soon as it became available. The story begins when two children, Eliza (10) and Thatch (4) hide in a root cellar when their home is attacked by Shawnee Indians. Tragically, the children become orphans when their parents are killed in the attack. Eliza initially tries to protect Thatch from learning the truth about their parents. Daniel Boone comes across the children and, after learning they have no relatives, offers to take them to a fort, named after him, called Boonesborough. Many families live inside the confines of the fort under Colonel Boone’s direction. Daniel’s wife, Rebecca, already has eight children, but she readily agrees. Eliza and Thatch quickly become part of the family, taking on chores and learning the ways of a wilderness family. Though Granger indicates that this story is told from the perspective of the point of view of White people through Eliza’s voice, I appreciated that the author didn’t try to glorify or exaggerate Boone’s life. There were plenty of hardships as well as great times. Boone is captured by Indians at one point and is gone for so long that Rebecca fears he has died. She eventually moves from the fort taking most of her biological children and Thatch with her. Eliza, still longing that Boone may return, decides to stay at the fort with Boone’s oldest daughter, Jemima, who is now married to Simon. Boone eventually escapes from the Indians and returns to the fort, but by this point, his reputation has taken a hit. Some people living at the fort believe the rumors that Boone became friendly with the British and the Indians. Though he is still in charge, the rumors never go away completely. After fending off several attacks on the fort by the combined forces of the Shawnee and the British, Boone finally decides to leave the fort to reunite with Rebecca. From this point on, Eliza and Boone do not live together, so the author follows Eliza. Still, Eliza and Boone cross paths after this, so we continue to learn more about Boone. He gets involved in government and many business ventures. Many of these endeavors do not go well, and the Boones move several more times. Granger does a marvelous job of portraying Daniel Boone’s life, sharing his triumphs and failures. It is the kind of read one doesn’t get in a history book. I thought I would give you a little snippet from the book to whet your appetite to read it! ******* Probably eighty people lived in the fort — free men, some slaves, boys, but only a few women and girls. Most of the men had claimed land in areas around the fort and worked their land, just as my parents had done — planting crops, harvesting, or hunting, depending on the season. I often worried when I saw that among all these people, no one took charge of guarding the back gate of the fort and only sometimes did a guard stand at the front one. One morning, after me and Levina, who was going on ten like me, had finished a considerable amount of washing and had hung the clothes to dry, Colonel Boone himself approached me. He carried a long rifle crosswise in his arms. “Eliza,” he said, “my wife knows how to hunt and she’s a dead shot. All my children know how to hunt, so I think you should too. You have to be able to take care of yourself and Thatch, especially if anything should happen to me or Rebecca.” Levina, who stood beside me, nodded. “I can shoot and I got me some rabbits not long ago.” “I’ve gone hunting with my pa,” I replied, “but he never showed me how to shoot.” “So come with me now. And leave your bonnet here.” Levina gave me a friendly push. “You go on with Pa.” I followed his long strides across the meadow outside the fort, past the corn and vegetable patches, and into the dense, surrounding woods. The moccasins let me walk without making much noise. The colonel had showed me how make my skirts less of a bother when I had to walk through the bushes, by bunching them up into my belt front and back, making them like pants.  “Are we hunting a deer today, Colonel Boone?” I whispered, loud enough for him to hear me. He responded with that chuckle of his. “Whenever you hunt deer, the hardest part is finding them. So we’ll just see what’s out here. Maybe rabbits.” We spent some time scouting, with the colonel checking for tracks and other signs and showing me what he saw. I knew he was very skilled at this, and I vowed to learn the signs myself. He showed me some bear scat, a pile of large black turds big as Colonel Boone’s foot. Rabbit scat looked different, small round droppings, and when we found a clearing with a lot of it, we stopped. “I’m going to show you how to load the rifle, Eliza, so pay attention,” he said quietly. He stood the rifle on its stock and took the powder horn from his belt, uncorking it and pouring some powder into the barrel of the rifle. “How do you know how much powder to put in?” I lowered my voice, too. “I don’t know, I just do. I’ll show you the right amount later.” Then he plugged the powder horn back up and took a small piece of greasy cloth from his bag along with a lead ball. Wrapping the ball in the scrap of cloth, he pushed it into the barrel. Then he slid out a long rod from a holder on the side of the rifle and used it to

I really enjoyed this book, which is an homage to other Victorian mystery series to which I am addicted (think authors Charles Finch, Elizabeth Peters, Anne Perry, but especially Arthur Conan Doyle). But quite unique in its own right. London in 1895. Mrs. Hudson, the redoubtable landlady of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, comes to the detective agency of Timothy Badger and his partner in detection Benjamin Watson with the news that Dr. Watson has been kidnapped. With Holmes out of the country, she has nowhere else to turn, and Badger and Watson have made a name for themselves as detectives. Badger is one of Holmes’ former Baker Street Irregulars, encouraged by Holmes to become a detective, and Watson, a black man, is an intuitive partner. They read the ransom note delivered to Mrs. Hudson, which says that the writer has Watson and not to involve the police or try to find him. When they visit 221 Baker Street, they find the physician was enjoying a glass of sherry before being bundled away in a barouche coach and left wearing only one slipper. Did Dr. Watson know his captor? Why only one slipper? There is not much to go on, except for an upside down case book on the floor, opened to a particular page, and the muddy print of a hobnailed boot. When the second note arrives demanding only five hundred pounds, they learn from Mycroft Homes that this is a ridiculously low amount for such a renowned figure. The two detectives are baffled. Why was Dr. Watson kidnapped, since clearly not for the money? They enlist the help of the Dean Street Irregulars, a group of street urchins that Badger now employs, much has he once was, to locate the barouche. And then they consult with Ellsie Littleton, the reporter who had had the cases written up by Dr. Watson published in The Strand Magazine. There are unexpected twists and turns to the plot as the detectives get so close to finding the kidnappers before losing them. And the detectives’ search is complicated by Badgers growing affection for Miss Littleton, and Watson’s infatuation with his household’s maid. The concept of the book is original and imaginative. The characters have a humorous side, and all of them, including the minor ones, are meticulously drawn. Miss Littleton is fetchingly frustrating. The description of Victorian London is detailed, colorful, and historically accurate, and the author includes a dictionary of terms, such as bloaters and crawlers, at the beginning of the book making it easy for Kindle readers to use it. I highly recommend this book as a fun read and an engaging Victorian mystery. About the author: Los Angeles native, Jeri Westerson is the author of fifteen Crispin Guest Medieval Noir Mystery novels, a series nominated for thirteen national awards from the Agatha to the Shamus. Her fifth novel BLOOD LANCE was named one of the Ten Hot Crime Novels for Colder Days by Kirkus Reviews, and her sixth, SHADOW OF THE ALCHEMIST, was named Best of 2013 by Suspense Magazine. She also has short stories in several mystery anthologies, including the upcoming SOUTH CENTRAL NOIR, an Akashic Noir anthology. She has served two terms as president of the Southern California Chapter of Mystery Writers of America, twice president of the Orange County Chapter of Sisters in Crime, and as vice president for the Los Angeles Chapter of Sisters in Crime. She is also a founding member of the Los Angeles chapter of the Historical Novel Society. See more and sign up for her newsletter at JeriWesterson.com. You can find her at: 2 0

I received an e-pub copy of this book from the author in return for a fair and honest review.                                                                         ****** This is probably the twistiest crime-mystery book I have ever read. I became quite dizzy by the end of it. It begins with when a privileged public student (read: private, this is England) stumbles home covered in blood, urine, and bruises, claiming a teacher attacked him and urinated on him. Rather than go to a hospital, his wealthy, entitled father and the younger trophy wife decide to call the police. Predictably, the media learns about it and goes berserk. Thus far the characters are all memes, which made me wonder whether I wanted to read further. It seems the father is actually facing bankruptcy for mismanagement of his company and a missing $500,000. The wife is a toned, pampered, covetous women who, if anything, is more haute than her husband. The son, Sebastian, is a sociopath, who revels in hurting people both figuratively and literally. The teacher he accuses, Miss Fleming, is a large, unattractive, lonely woman, but intelligent and takes no guff from her students. She just insulted Sebastian in front of his friends. So of course, she couldn’t have possibly attacked Sebastian, and Sebastian made up the story to get back at her. The lone figure of reason is DCI Riley, an Irish policeman who at six foot three and the width of a door, is an imposing character and a pretty smart detective as well. His introduction assured me that the story line would get better. I enjoyed the sometimes humorous interaction between Riley and a new partner assigned to him, George, who is tall, thin as a reed, and tries to remember everything Riley says because he wants to be a detective himself. Riley’s world becomes even more complicated when his wife’s relationship with him suddenly becomes cold and distant, for reasons he cannot discern but is determined to find out. Riley is not convinced of the truth of Sebastian’s tale, never more so than when Miss Fleming’s modest house is defaced, her windows broken and her car set on fire. And when he learns more about Sebastian. Riley did a great job discovering details that convince the reader that Miss Fleming is innocent, at least until Riley discovers he is wrong. But how could Sebastian, a model of mental disturbance, be telling the truth? How could Miss Fleming, a good person, be guilty of attacking Sebastian? Was someone else involved? And how? I had to keep reading, following the twisted path and careful thought processes of DCI Riley, fighting through a toxic, tangled mix of lies, manipulation, class warfare and outside threats. This novel kept my mind roiling while I tried to keep all the threads straight and find out if Riley’s wife’s obvious problems are somehow linked to Sebastian. I challenge mystery and crime fiction readers to test their skills of deduction with this book! About the author: Mr. Bailey and his wife live in England. He originally trained as a teacher, but now supports Microsoft windows and ArcSight ESM. His first story was a fictionalized account of a disastrous trip to Las Vegas with a dental abscess. Since then, he has written a vampire story (without any actual vampires) and about a perfectly ordinary day at the office that will last for eternity. This is his sixth book. You can find the author on Facebook: facebook.com/peter.bailey.940 And on X (Twitter): @peterbailey111 1 0