Description
Book SynopsisDeep in the woods of Maine, the Revolutionary War is still fresh in settlers' minds as a young man named Peter Loon sets off at his mother's urging to find a mysterious person. Peter, who has never been away from his home, quickly falls into a series of startling entanglements. He befriends a nomadic parson with a seafaring past and whose humble intelligence and steady head prove useful, especially when the two find themselves in the middle of a bitter land battle. Crisscrossing between the two sides, Peter and Parson Leach tread the razor-thin line between law and justice. With the inimitable storytelling, exquisitely etched characters, and gentle humor that make Reid such a master, Peter Loon is a breathtaking tale of high adventure and great humility.
Trade ReviewA polished master of the cozy, with characters as colorful as all get-out. * The New York Times *
Return with Reid to a less cynical age. Reid's impersonation of a late-Enlightenment novelist is persuasive, and Peter himself is engagingly picaresque. * The Instrumentalist *
Reid's one-man campaign to resurrect the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century novel is a campaign well worth enlisting in. Don't miss Peter Loon. [starred review] * Kirkus *
Reid has an excellent sense of dramatic situation, draws shrewd characters, and makes good use of suspense. Writing with power, restraint, and light comic touch, he keeps a surprise till the last. [starred review] * Booklist *
Hopeful . . . a gentle and engaging reminder that America is more than a nation of individuals; it is also a nation of ideas. * Bangor Daily News *
Van Reid's latest is sure to enlarge his circle of admirers. * Baltimore Sun *
Table of ContentsChapter 1. How Ezekiel Peter Black Came to Sheepscott Great Pond and How His Young Daughter Was Courted. Chapter 2. Of Rosemund Loon's Strangeness, and Silas Loon's Death, and How Their Son Peter Was Sent in Search of an Uncle "By Marriage". Chapter 3. Of Peter Loon's First Night in the Forest. Chapter 4. How Peter Loon Conjured Himself from a Felled Buck, and How He Met Two Woodsmen and a Parson. Chapter 5. How Peter Fell in with Parson Leach. Chapter 6. Of the March to Plymouth Gore, and of the Place They Went Instead. Chapter 7. How Peter Loon and Parson Leach Were Received at the Ale Wife's Tavern, Who They Met, and What They Learned There. Chapter 8. Concerning a Conversation on the Beach, and the Consequences of Mr. Tillage's Peep of Heaven. Chapter 9. Concerning Antinomianism and Other Matters. Chapter 10. Of the Road to New Milford, Unexpected Meetings, and How a Peaceful Man Might Be Driven to Anger. Chapter 11. Concerning a Change in Plans, a Parting of the Ways, as Well as an Introduction to the Busy Abode of Captain Clayden as Governed by Mrs. Magnanimous. Chapter 12. Concerning an Interview with Captain Clayden. Chapter 13. How Peter Spent His First Night on Clayden Point, and How He Was Perceived by Young Women There. Chapter 14. Of What It Meant to Pique-Nique and the Inevitability of Certain Failures. Chapter 15. Concerning New Visitors to Captain Clayden and Their Opinions. Chapter 16. Of the Road to New Milford, and What They Discovered at Great Meadow Copse. Chapter 17. Concerning the Encounter at Benjamin Brook. Chapter 18. How Opinion Differed over the Course of a Few Hours and a Few Miles, and What Was Said at the Sign of the Star and Sturgeon. Chapter 19. Concerning Matters with Elspeth Gray and Gray Farm. Chapter 20. How the Parson Was Accused by—and Peter Attached to—Nathan Barrow. Chapter 21. Concerning the Disposition of Two Hundred. Chapter 22. Concerning the March to Wicasset. Chapter 23. How Peter Came to His Third Tavern, and How He Put the Night's Adventures into Motion. Chapter 24. How Peter Loon Came to the Jail at Wicasset and What Happened There. Chapter 25. How Peter Loon Returned to New Milford and How He Left There Again. Chapter 26. How Peter Journeyed Home and What He Found There. Chapter 27. Concerning Peter Loon's Decisions and also What Was Decided for Him.
