Thoreau in Phantom Bog

by B. B. Oak

Overview

Henry David Thoreau’s impassioned activism in the Underground Railroad leads him away from the banks of Walden Pond into a morass of murder…

In the spring of 1848, Thoreau returns to Plumford, Massachusetts, in search of a fellow conductor on the Underground Railroad, who has gone missing along with the escaped female slave he was assigned to transport. With the help of his good friend, Dr. Adam Walker, Thoreau finds the conductor—shot to death on a back road.

When the two men discover that Adam’s beloved cousin Julia has given the slave safe harbor, their relief is counterbalanced by concern for Julia, who has put herself in grave danger. Another conductor has been murdered in a neighboring town and a letter has been found from someone claiming to have been hired to assassinate anyone harboring fugitive slaves. With all of them now potential targets, the need for Thoreau and Adam to apprehend the killer is more urgent than ever…

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780758290274
Publisher:	Kensington
Publication date:	08/25/2015
Series:	A Henry David Thoreau Mystery , #3
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.90(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

B. B. Oak is the pen name of Beth and Ben Oak, who met in a literature course at Boston University and have been enthralled with Henry David Thoreau (and each other) ever since. They are members of The Thoreau Society and Old Sturbridge Village, a living museum which recreates life in rural New England and served as the model for the book’s fictional town of Plumford.

Editorial Reviews

07/20/2015
Someone is targeting Massachusetts conductors on the Underground Railroad in the pseudonymous Oak’s solid third Henry David Thoreau mystery (after 2014’s Thoreau on Wolf Hill). In the spring of 1848, Julia Pelletier offers to help Thoreau, her transcendental philosopher friend, in his effort to hide runaway slaves, in part to make up for the profits that her brutish husband, Jacques, made from human trafficking in the West Indies. She soon finds herself in the middle of a whodunit when Ezra Tripp, a fellow member of the underground, is found shot dead. Julia’s involvement only deepens when she harbors runaways herself, and she comes under suspicion from both a Southern slave catcher and the local constable. The murder of another member of the organization raises the stakes. Thoreau is again an able investigator, and the pre–Civil War setting is well integrated into the story, even though a subplot involving Julia’s complex love life crosses into melodrama. Agent: John Talbot, Talbot Fortune Agency. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for Thoreau on Wolf Hill

“Enjoyable…Walker is an able Watsonian sidekick to the Holmes-like Thoreau, and the solution is even cleverer than the previous book.” —Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

2015-06-17
A philosopher, a physician, and a free-spirited woman work together to solve a mystery in the 19th century. Talented portrait painter Julia Pelletier has always been in love with Dr. Adam Walker but was falsely told they were cousins. After marrying in haste, she discovers that her husband owned slave ships. Outraged, she leaves him in France and moves into the home she's inherited from her grandfather in Plumford, Massachusetts. There, she realizes that Adam is not her cousin, and they secretly become lovers. A friend to both of them, Henry Thoreau, has left Walden Pond to involve himself in the Underground Railroad. Julia has just offered her house as a station when Henry comes upon the body of Ezra Tripp, a conductor whose passenger was not delivered and is now missing. All three friends have been involved in a murder investigation before (Thoreau On Wolf Hill, 2014), and when someone sends a warning that Underground Railroad conductors are marked for death, they resolve to find the killer. A thorough search of Phantom Bog does not reveal the missing slave, but Julia eventually finds her and hides her in her attic. The slave's owner, who's in love with her, arrives determined to find her. Julia's worries about keeping the woman safe are compounded when she learns that her own husband has arrived from France and that she's pregnant. The three sleuths pool their distinctive skills to unravel the complicated mystery. Although the story could use some pruning, it provides plenty of vividly presented historical information on the Underground Railroad and Thoreau's world in the 1840s.

Kirkus Reviews