I am excited to announce that my newest Liam Dutra New England Mystery, SNOW-DARK CROSSING, will be out in late April!
Here is the Author's Note, which gives a sense of where this book came from:
In common with my other six novels, Snow-Dark Crossing was born when my own memories, imaginings, and explorations of certain places crossed paths with historical writings that showed up—fortuitously—on my horizon.
In the case of this book, there
were two dominant places: the Barre Street/Granite Street neighborhood of
Montpelier, Vermont, with its vestiges of the once-strong granite industry, and
the rural River Road area along the Winooski, just outside of town. (This
latter area also haunts much of Highway
In The Blood.)
As for the history: in my first
year of work as library assistant at Montpelier’s Main Street Middle School, I
came across on our shelves a book by Maudeen Neill entitled Fiery Crosses In The Green Mountains (Greenhills,
1989.) The accounts inside, in
particular those of the occurrences at Saint Augustine’s Church in November of
1925, stayed with me, eventually
meeting up with the story emerging from
my imagination as I explored the aforementioned places. This led to further
research, and a deepening story.
While the events at St. Augustine’s
really happened, there is no evidence, historical or anecdotal, that anything
like the dark and depraved deeds described in this novel ever really took place
along the River Road. But in writing mystorical fiction I have learned that it is crucial that I trust the
story that arrives, and the voices that bring it to me.
—KMB
I will be posting the first chapter soon-- I hope you will stay tuned!
