New England Books and Authors

281 pages, published by  Westholme Publishing , ©2018 While the witch hysteria in Salem was playing on everyone's fears and superstitions at the time, a lesser-known mania was taking place in another town close by. Andover, Massachusetts was a small town under the protection of the English Crown. Founded in 1646, the town was founded by residents of nearby Ipswich and Newbury. Andover was a relatively quiet town King Phillip's War put settlers on edge. There was another period of unrest that plagued the residents of the town. This time the threat was supernatural. While many throughout the United States and the rest of the world are familiar with the Salem Witch Trials, there are a lot of people who don't know of a similar infamous event in nearby Andover. In the summer of 1692, Elizabeth Ballard fell ill and showed no signs of recovering. At the behest of neighbors, Elizabeth's husband Joseph called on the girls of Salem who had been victims of witchcraft's curse ...

450 pages, published by  Simon & Schuster , ©2015 People are familiar with the Oregon Trail . A lot of adults were introduced to it by a computer game in elementary school. History buffs have studied the 2,100-mile route that started in Missouri and ended in Portland, Oregon. We are all familiar with the route and the dangers that came with it. Today, the wagon trails are replaced by the asphalt-laden state roads and interstate highways. High-speed vehicles are the norm today on the old trail, but there was a covered wagon that retraced the routes taken by the intrepid pioneers of the 1840's. If you missed it, you can read about it in Rinker Buck's "The Oregon Trail: A New American Journey". Buck's book begins with stories of growing up in New Jersey. His father collected a myriad of old vehicles. One summer, he announced to his wife and eleven children the family was going to travel by wagon to Pennsylvania. "It would be a combined camping and coaching e...

416 pages, published by Simon & Schuster , ©2024 Llwellyn is a town with a lot to offer. The small-town charm combined with its history and ghosts make it a popular tourist destination. That's right. Ghosts. The town of Llwellyn, or "Wellsie", as it is referred to by the locals, rests on a fault line. It's not a fault line like California that produces sometimes devastating earthquakes. If it was, the Wellsie's residents would take that in a heartbeat. Magic Under the Fault Line Wellsie's fault line protects locals and tourists from magic, a powerful, dangerous type of magic. Sid Spencer is a guardian, one of the people who is responsible for keeping the magic at bay so the unsuspecting tourists can visit quaint Wellsie and be none the wiser about the dangers that lie beneath the charming surface. The problem is Sid doesn't know she's a guardian. She is an awkward teenager who works at Lulu's, the local coffee shop. Sid's job involves servi...

95 pages, published by Noracatherwoodmysteries.com , ©2025 Blue Harbor, Maine is the perfect place for Isabel Fleming to escape to when she's had enough of the hustle and bustle of New York City or her job as a book editor. Blue Harbor has all of the charm tourists seek when they want a quiet vacation with beautiful scenery and friendly locals. The best part of the town just might be Turning the Tides , the bookstore owned by Isabel's Aunt Louise. Turning the Tides is the main setting of "Murder and Manuscripts" by Nora Bardin . The book is the first installment of the Isabel Fleming Cozy Mystery Series. Death in Blue Harbor Louise, a popular resident of Blue Harbor, has unfortunately passed away. Isabel has come back to look after her aunt's final wishes, including selling the beloved Turning the Tides . Isabel's boyfriend, Andrew, is patiently waiting for her to come back to New York. Isabel is an efficient, meticulous woman. She knows exactly what needs to...

Photo: elizabethstrout.com 291 pages, published by Random House , ©2022 It hasn’t been an easy life for Lucy Barton, and it’s about to get harder. Lucy lives alone in New York City. She is a novelist, a single woman with two grown daughters, and the main character of the novel “Lucy by the Sea” by Elizabeth Strout. Lucy loves her girls dearly, and she doesn’t want them going through what she had to endure during her childhood: grinding poverty and an apathetic mother. Adulthood hasn’t been easier her ex-husband, William, had cheated on her and ultimately left her for the woman he cheated on her with. Spring is coming to New York, but so is a virus that is afflicting otherwise healthy people and killing many. William, a parasitologist, is familiar with the virus in ways laypeople cannot comprehend. He convinces his daughters to leave the city. As far as Lucy goes, William has plans for her to join him in a rented house in the town of Shirley, Maine .  Lucy is apprehensive about leav...

Photo: bu.edu 249 pages, published by Rowman & Littlefield , ©2024 The Boston Celtics are the defending NBA Champions and currently the number 2 seed in the Eastern Conference. It's an exciting time for fans of the Green, as they watch the C's defend their title and try to win back-to-back championships for the first time since 1966. It's a great time for the Celtics and their fans. It hasn't always been this way. Older fans remember the lean years of the 1990's heading into the 2000's, the years that followed the heady days of the 1980's when Boston won three titles in six years, and almost had a fourth banner to add to the rafters in that time. For Celtics fans who remember watching games in an outdated Boston Garden complete with rats and a lack of air conditioning, Thomas J. Whalen has penned a book about the 1983-84 Boston Celtics. His book is titled "Dynasty Restored: How Larry Bird and the 1984 Boston Celtics Conquered the NBA and Changed B...