The nineteen-teens was a tumultuous era in American history. The pace of social change was dizzying: the rising tide of worker unrest, the battle for women's suffrage, the scourge of discrimination against minorities. New technologies - electricity, the telephone, the automobile - were transforming life. Meanwhile the war raging in Europe was drawing America inexorably into its vortex.
Author Robert T. McMaster transports his readers back in time to early 20th century America in a new series of historical novels. Set in a bustling New England industrial city, these books follow the lives of teenagers Jack Bernard and Tom Wellington through good times and bad, hope and despair, love and loss. Adventure, mystery, and romance abound in these absorbing stories populated with characters so real and life-like they seem to leap from the pages and materialize before our very eyes.
Readers young and old will be captivated by the world of their grandparents and great-grandparents, an era seemingly remote that nonetheless speaks to us across the generations.
Trolley Days, The Dyeing Room, and Noah's Raven are currently available in paperback and eBook editions.
Trolley Days is the story of an unlikely friendship between two boys growing up in Holyoke, Massachusetts, in its industrial heyday. Jack Bernard is the son of a mill worker who emigrated from Canada, Tom Wellington the son of the mill owner. Jack is shy and socially a bit awkward, Tom self-assured and smooth-talking. But for all their differences, the two boys have much in common. They love fishing, sports, and all manner of youthful tomfoolery. Each has suffered the loss of a sibling, tragedies that have affected both families deeply.
In the opening chapter a blizzard is approaching as Jack boards a train for the long trip to Boston. He has received a cryptic letter informing him that Tom is in a Boston jail. Despite a recent falling-out between the two, Jack still considers Tom his best friend, and he refuses to allow a snowstorm to prevent him from going to Tom's aid. Soon Jack will be plunged into a mystery that calls on all his courage and determination to solve, even as Tom's freedom, perhaps his very life, hangs in the balance. To save his friend, Jack will need the assistance of Tom's sister, Anne, but that will require Jack and Anne to reconcile their fractured relationship.
Does friendship have its limits? Can bonds of trust, once broken, be repaired? Can we learn from life's tragedies and move on, or must we carry them like lead weights on our hearts forever? In Trolley Days, it seems it is the young who bear the heaviest of life's burdens and must marshal the strength to free themselves and their parents.
by Robert T. McMaster
Unquomonk Press - ISBN 9780985694401
Available in paperback and eBook
Spring - 1917. War is raging in Europe and America has just cast its lot against the German war machine. Back home, the nation is reeling with social strife: workers marching for their rights, immigrants demanding fair treatment, suffragettes clamoring for the vote.
In Holyoke, Massachusetts, 17-year-old Jack Bernard has begun a new job at one of the city's largest textile mills, hoping to save money for college. Meanwhile, his friend, Tom Wellington, appears to have taken control of his demons and set himself on a new course. Soon the lives of both young men, their families and friends, will be torn asunder by forces and events far beyond their control.
The Dyeing Room, Book 2 of the Trolley Days Series, is an absorbing blend of adventure, mystery, and romance. Readers young and old will be captivated by this story from a century past, the world of our forebears, an era that, however distant, still speaks to us across the generations.
by Robert T. McMaster
Unquomonk Press - ISBN 9780985694432
Available in paperback and eBook
September, 1917. America has entered the Great War, the War to End All Wars. While young Americans by the hundreds of thousands are marching into battle in Europe, back home the nation’s social fabric is being torn asunder by patriotic fervor and xenophobia.
Anne Wellington, Jack Bernard, and his sister Claire befriend a scientist excavating fossil dinosaur tracks along the banks of the Connecticut River. Soon dark secrets will be revealed, some buried in ancient rock, some hidden deep in the heart of their mysterious new acquaintance.
When two German-American classmates are taunted in the schoolyard, 14-year-old Claire Bernard rushes to their defense. While her intentions are good, she is soon plunged into a dark world of international conspiracy where prejudice and suspicion blur distinctions between friend and foe, good and evil, a world where she could well be the next victim.
Noah’s Raven, Book 3 of the Trolley Days Series, a riveting story of intrigue set in a tumultuous period in our nation's past.
Noah's Raven
by Robert T. McMaster
Unquomonk Press - ISBN 9780985694463
Available in paperback and eBook
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