Down East Books
Pages: 464
•
Trim: 6 x 9
978-1-60893-518-5 • Paperback • January 2016 • $16.95 • (£12.99)
978-1-60893-519-2 • eBook • January 2016 • $7.99 • (£5.99)
Van Reid's family has lived in Edgecomb, Maine, since the 1800s. Reid lives with his wife and children in a house Reid and his brother built on their family's land. His series of novels about the Moosepath League--of which Cordelia Underwood is the first--take place in the late 1800s on coastal Maine.
Prologue: The Mariner
JULY 1, 1896
Book One
JULY 2, 1896
Chapter 1. The Custom House Wharf
Chapter 2. Pigs, Not Contraband
Chapter 3. An Almost Empty House
Chapter 4. The Sea Chest
Chapter 5. Enter Ephram, Eagleton, and Thump
Book Two
JULY 3, 1896
Chapter 6. A Deafening Silence Hushed by the Smell of Bacon Frying
Chapter 7. Minmaneth
Chapter 8. Curiosity by the Barrel
Book Three
INDEPENDENCE DAY, 1896
Chapter 9. What’s Good for the Soul
Chapter 10. Freeport
Chapter 11. The Political Fray
Chapter 12. A Descent into the Maelstrom
Chapter 13. The Veiled Invitation
Chapter 14. Tolerable to Moderately Good
Chapter 15. A Storm at Mast Landing
Chapter 16. It Was Their Duty
Chapter 17. The Wake of the Dash
Book Four
JULY 5-6, 1896
Chapter 18. The Unasked Question
Chapter 19. The Vote Is In
Chapter 20. The Ghost in the Garden
Chapter 21. The Game Was Big in Wiscasset
Book Five
JULY 7, 1896
Chapter 22. It Was a Shame about Maude
Chapter 23. Sundry Moss
Chapter 24. Oddly Hunting Maude
Chapter 25. The Extraordinary Befuddlement of Mr. Thump, the Singular Distraction of Mr. Eagleton, and the Superior Determination of Mr. Ephram!
Chapter 26. A Shaggy Bear Story
Chapter 27. Chorus for Duck and Bear
Chapter 28. Colonel Taverner Proposes
Chapter 29. Captain Coyle’s Riddle
Chapter 30. Sundry’s Change of Position
Chapter 31. Night Watch at Fort Edgecomb
Chapter 32. Voices in the Night
Chapter 33. The Unexpected Effects of Ducky Planke
Book Six
JULY 8, 1896
Chapter 34. Boothbay Harbor
Chapter 35. The Members Are Outraged
Chapter 36. An Unexpected Expedition
Chapter 37. Damariscotta
Chapter 38. A Message Decoded
Chapter 39. Thoughts on a Pirate
Chapter 40. Monstrous Rumors
Book Seven
JULY 9, 1896
Chapter 41. Fishing for Information
Chapter 42. Briefly with the Club
Chapter 43. Cordial Mayhem
Chapter 44. The Kraken Speaks
Chapter 45. Caught in the Act
Chapter 46. Red-Painted Mystery
Book Eight
JULY 10, 1896
Chapter 47. Composition
Chapter 48. Walton from Walnut
Chapter 49. Alces Alces with Undergarment
Chapter 50. History Beneath the Heaps
Chapter 51. Formation
Chapter 52. No Longer Nameless
Chapter 53. A Slip of the Thumb
Chapter 54. Mister Walton Proves His Mettle
Chapter 55. The Writing on the Wall
Book Nine
JULY 11, 1896
Chapter 56. Design
Chapter 57. Pursuit
Chapter 58. Below Minmaneth
Chapter 59. Reprise the Overture, Please
Chapter 60. Moose Manor
Chapter 61. Tipping the Scales
Chapter 62. The Villain Among the Victims
Book Ten
JULY 12, 1896
Chapter 63. The Man Himself
Chapter 64. A Deed Nearly Done
Chapter 65. The Man with the Silver Lining
Chapter 66. Further Wit in Evidence
Chapter 67. No One Knew the Day Until the Sun went Down
Epilogue
JULY 27-31, 1896
1 July 27, 1896
2 July 30, 1896
3 July 31, 1896
Author’s Note
In his amiable, richly populated first novel, a bookseller from Maine named Van Reid draws a past that should soothe even the twitchiest reader. His re-creation of the summer of 1896 has its mishaps and villains, but it's so sunny that even the violence isn't too scary.
Reid's gazillion characters sparkle. Their collective adventures are engaging and (especially when talking in concert or at cross-purposes) they can be funny.
In a society populated by sterling types and delightful ninnies, even the villains are decent sorts. Escapists will be charmed by what the author, in an endnote, describes as a ''world of decency and kindness, goodness and laughter,'' in which there's plenty going on and nothing too terrible ever happens.
Diffuse and leisurely, the novel seems designed for long afternoons in a hammock.
— The New York Times, 7/26/98
Reid's debut takes place in a simpler, gentler time in 1898, among the well-to-do of Portland, ME. It has parallel plot lines, one of which involves 23-year-old Cordelia Underwood, who lives with her parents and has just inherited from her Uncle Basil a parcel of land in upper, inland Maine that possibly contains buried treasure. The other plot line involves middle-aged Tobias Walton, a man of independent means who travels the world and who this year does his home state. Along the way he has picked up a valet by the name of Sundry Moss, twin brother to Varius Moss. Then there are the three nutty fellows who want Tobias to be the chair of their newly formed club, subsequently named the Moosepath League. In their journeys, Cordelia and Tobias cross paths with the strangest crop of crazies ever to sail into a Maine port or come out of a Maine forest. It's refreshing to read a story with no sex (just a little romance), hardly any violence, and absolutely no naughty words. Recommended, especially for the YA crowd.
— Library Journal
"Reminiscent of John Irving at his hilarious best . . . a charming, old-fashioned romp through Victorian New England."
— Boston Herald
"Delightful--thoroughly delightful."
— Cleveland Plain Dealer