Book Blurb:
July 1878, and the West is teeming with astronomers eager to observe a total solar eclipse. Cora and four other female astronomy students have accompanied Professor Maria Mitchell to Colorado for the event, but their chances of seeing it are threatened when a railway dispute forces them to entrust their precious telescopes to a young freight hauler's wagon. Nolan Carter is determined to get his cargo and passengers to their destination, but as one thing after another goes wrong, he despairs of reaching Denver in time. Yet he could happily spend more time with the surprising Cora, who accompanies the telescopes while her companions take the train. Meanwhile, overhead, the celestial clock-indifferent to worldly dangers, delays, or distractions-is ticking.
Book Buy Link: https://geni.us/9xmTjXh
Author Bio:
I am a writer in Rhode Island. My credits include numerous non-fiction articles and book reviews. I also wrote a monthly newspaper column on infectious diseases for six years. Some of my short stories have appeared in Science, Futures Mysterious Anthology Magazine, Writer’s Digest: The Year’s Best Writing, and the Maryland Writers Association 2022 anthology, Caption This! Embark published the opening chapter from one of my historical fiction manuscripts; the same manuscript received a “notable mention” in the 2021 Chapter One Prize.
In an earlier life as a microbiologist, I traveled in Russia, India, Egypt, and Europe, and was posted to U.S. embassies in Swaziland (now, Eswatini) and Colombia. I was an AAAS Diplomacy Fellow and an Embassy Science Fellow in the U.S. State Department, and an IETA Fellow with CDC. I left the Global Virus Network in 2018 and returned to Rhode Island to retire and write.
My debut historical novel, Shadow of the Moon, was published by Wild Rose Press in March 2023.
Editorial Review:
Shadow of the Moon is an action packed, drama filled novel set in the heyday of cowboy justice where modernity was clashing with the old ways of doing things. For anyone interested in the Wild West time period in America, this book is the perfect read.
Nolan, the story’s protagonist, is from a well to do family from Chicago. However, he leaves the safety of his home in exchange for excitement on the frontier. What starts off as an adventure quickly devolves into a horrific turn of events as reality sets in. Nolan’s friend, Davey, is shot and killed. His brother, Brian, insists on returning home after telling Nolan, “This is ended. I’ve had enough. The cattle drive. The winter in Denver scrounging around. Now this. This isn’t some storybook adventure anymore. There’s no adventure. There’s just being dead in the cold hills. I’m going home, Nol. It’s over.” Without the unknown and day-to-day survival involved in being out West, Nolan seems to be lost in terms of finding his purpose in life. It appears as if the hardship and struggles of living out in the West is his distraction so that he doesn’t have to focus on finding his true calling. This point is driven home as Nolan muses to himself, “No, I wasn’t a scientist or mathematician. In fact, I had no idea what I was. Today, I was a faux cowboy with two horses, two guns, a little money, and fading chances of earning any more. And tomorrow? What would I be tomorrow? Sooner or later, I would have to decide.”
Nolan discovers a sense of purpose when he comes across an interesting, highly educated group of women. A solar eclipse is about to take place and this group of scientists and astronomers intend to watch it, study it and receive press coverage for being present at this momentous event. The press coverage part is important since during the late 1800’s, equal rights had yet to surface. Cora, one of the astronomers, is highly passionate about women being treated equally. This is clear through her infuriated speech when she mentions a thesis that was published essentially stating it dangerous for women to be in the sciences, “His terrible little thesis is that too much education for girls is bad for their health, dooming them, in fact, to a lifetime of sickliness, and eventually dooming the human race to extinction by the decreased fertility of so many educated women. And too many people are eager to believe it and use it as a rationale for keeping women out of universities and medical schools and out of the sciences. It’s hard enough to get through life on your own terms when so many barriers are put up before you. It isn’t fair. It isn’t right.”
Despite the lack of equal opportunities, Cora and her group have made it out to the frontier; however, they are meant to be traveling to Denver to witness the eclipse. During this time, railroads were springing up everywhere. Despite this added convenience, there is an added inconvenience of railroad wars where owners of the companies were fighting with each other over control of the tracks. Due to their battles, tickets bought with one company were not necessarily honored if the passengers were switching lines and subsequently traveling with a different railway company. This is the dilemma Cora and her colleagues find themselves in. They are stranded with useless tickets and no one to help. Additionally, they have some bulky baggage containing telescopes and equipment with which to observe the eclipse.
This is where the hero, Nolan, steps in. Nolan works at a freight company and offers that he and his colleague, Travis, move not only the baggage, but the women as well and get them to Denver. The group ends up splitting up where Nolan, Travis, Cora and her colleague, Elizabeth, bundle up together to head out over the Wild West to Denver.
A string of unfortunate events unfolds during this perilous journey. They all stem from the growing romance between Nolan and Cora. Instead of staying with Travis and Elizabeth, the couple take a more scenic route with the intention of catching up with their friends in a few hours. The few hours turn into multiple terror filled days where they come into contact with murderous cowboys, enraged gun toting Indians and burnt-out towns with grizzly murdered bodies left to decay at the crime scene. After Cora witnesses the smoldering village she cries to Nolan, “My God. Is it so easy to die out here? Where is the law?” Nolan’s answer gives readers a true impression of the harsh realities of life on the frontier, “We’re on the frontier…between the wild, natural world and that big blundering civilization back East. The law is still catching up out here. Just behind the settlers and homesteaders. It’s always a town or a train away from trouble.”
Modernity is also a theme which crops up within this novel. It seems to be a fascinating time in limbo between the old and the new. The freight business on wagons is soon to be replaced with the fast moving railways. Telephones will replace telegrams. Motor cars and roads will replace horses and endless stretches of desert. This is made evident when Nolan says the following about the West, “It’s the past. Indians, saber-waving pony soldiers, sod houses, bows and arrows, conquistador hamlets and monasteries. The future is back East with telephones, electricity, phonographs, steam engines, and all the rest of modernity.”
To summarize, The Shadow of the Moon is an engaging novel with nail biting plot twists and unexpected turns. The writing style and dialogue is hilarious at times and heart-breaking at others. The characters are well drawn-out, their inner struggles relatable despite the gulf separating the readers from the characters in time and space. I found the novel to be a wonderful combination of gritty and down-to-earth in the dusty prairie of Colorado whilst also being ethereal and whimsical. This magical element is especially potent during the eclipse descriptionsand this reviewer definitely recommends this novel to anyone interested in Wild West America. They will surely devour this read!
*****
“Shadow of the Moon” by Edward McSweegan receives 4.5 stars from The Historical Fiction Company
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