Overview
Rare-book expert Peter Fallon and his girlfriend, Evangeline, the main characters from Back Bay and Harvard Yard, are back for another treasure hunt through time. They have learned of an early, annotated draft of the Constitution, stolen and smuggled out of Philadelphia. The draft's marginal notes spell out, in shocking detail, the Founders' unequivocal intentions—-the unmistakable meaning of the Bill of Rights. Peddled and purloined, trafficked and concealed for over two centuries, the lost Constitution could forever change America's history—-and its future.
Moreover, Congress is already at war, fighting tooth and claw over the eternally contentious Bill of Rights. When word gets out of the lost draft's existence, it launches a frenzied search, as both sides of the partisan machine believe it will reinforce their arguments. While battling politicians from both sides of the debate, Peter and Evangeline must get to the document first, because they know that if the wrong people find it, they will burn it, stripping the nation of its constitutional moorings.
The search takes Peter and Evangeline into the rich history of America and New England, from Shay's Rebellion to the birth of the American industrial revolution to the march of the legendary 20th Maine in the Civil War.
Past and present play off one another as the search for the draft heats up. It finally boils over on the first night of the World Series, at that Mecca of New England, Boston's fabled Fenway Park, and the truth is finally revealed.…
Synopsis
Rare-book expert Peter Fallon and his girlfriend, Evangeline, the main characters from Back Bay and Harvard Yard, are back for another treasure hunt through time. They have learned of an early, annotated draft of the Constitution, stolen and smuggled out of Philadelphia. The draft's marginal notes spell out, in shocking detail, the Founders' unequivocal intentions—-the unmistakable meaning of the Bill of Rights. Peddled and purloined, trafficked and concealed for over two centuries, the lost Constitution could forever change America's history—-and its future.
Moreover, Congress is already at war, fighting tooth and claw over the eternally contentious Bill of Rights. When word gets out of the lost draft's existence, it launches a frenzied search, as both sides of the partisan machine believe it will reinforce their arguments. While battling politicians from both sides of the debate, Peter and Evangeline must get to the document first, because they know that if the wrong people find it, they will burn it, stripping the nation of its constitutional moorings.
The search takes Peter and Evangeline into the rich history of America and New England, from Shay's Rebellion to the birth of the American industrial revolution to the march of the legendary 20th Maine in the Civil War.
Past and present play off one another as the search for the draft heats up. It finally boils over on the first night of the World Series, at that Mecca of New England, Boston's fabled Fenway Park, and the truth is finally revealed.…
Publishers Weekly
A rare, annotated draft of the U.S. Constitution is at the heart of Martin's entertaining third novel to feature antiquarian book dealer Peter Fallon. As in Harvard Yard (2003), Martin tells two stories. The first chronicles the loss and recovery of the document at the time of the constitutional convention, where young Will Pike attends Massachusetts delegate Rufus King, and its passing through generations of the Pike family to the present. The second traces Fallon's search against deadly competition to find the draft. Throughout, Martin makes clear that people have always tried to use the Constitution for their own purposes, including right-wing Christian fanatics, survivalist gun nuts, liberal gun-banners and greedy entrepreneurs now seeking the lost draft. The Pike family motto: "In America, we get up in the morning, we go to work, and we solve our problems" serves as a unifying theme, and Martin also makes clear that the Constitution drafts and all was intended as a unifying agent. This is a good mystery, a better examination of constitutional issues and a superb paean to New England, its people, natural beauty and resources. Author tour. (May)
Copyright 2007 Reed Business InformationEditorials
Publishers Weekly
A rare, annotated draft of the U.S. Constitution is at the heart of Martin's entertaining third novel to feature antiquarian book dealer Peter Fallon. As in Harvard Yard (2003), Martin tells two stories. The first chronicles the loss and recovery of the document at the time of the constitutional convention, where young Will Pike attends Massachusetts delegate Rufus King, and its passing through generations of the Pike family to the present. The second traces Fallon's search against deadly competition to find the draft. Throughout, Martin makes clear that people have always tried to use the Constitution for their own purposes, including right-wing Christian fanatics, survivalist gun nuts, liberal gun-banners and greedy entrepreneurs now seeking the lost draft. The Pike family motto: "In America, we get up in the morning, we go to work, and we solve our problems" serves as a unifying theme, and Martin also makes clear that the Constitution—drafts and all—was intended as a unifying agent. This is a good mystery, a better examination of constitutional issues and a superb paean to New England, its people, natural beauty and resources. Author tour. (May)
Copyright 2007 Reed Business InformationKirkus Reviews
Antiquarians, survivalists, a media mogul, a travel writer and assorted ruthless killers chase each other around New England in search of an early draft of the United States Constitution. Peter Fallon, the debonair, enterprising dealer in rare books and papers last seen in Harvard Yard (2003), is asked to find a copy of that early draft, complete with useful marginal notes, that went missing at the beginning of the Constitutional Convention. The antiquarian concludes that the best way to find the valuable document is to figure out where it's been over the last couple of centuries, so Fallon's present-day detective work (ably assisted by travel-writing lady-love Evangeline Carrington) alternates with a chronicle of how the copy went missing and the route of its travels. That itinerary hangs on the history of Massachusetts' Pike family and its involvement in Shays' Rebellion, a dramatic post-revolutionary, pre-convention insurrection. Will Pike's lawyerly ambitions keep him out of the rebellion, but his big, scary older brother North is much involved. Will gets work as a clerk to convention delegate Rufus King, who entrusts him with the draft, which brother North promptly filches. This is the first in a series of thefts, recoveries and re-thefts leading to the present day, when the draft is lusted after by ideologues of various stripes who hope that those penciled notes will buttress such causes as gun control and the establishment of Christianity as the National Church. The search turns over many stones and opens many closets as the clock ticks toward Fallon's deadline, the first game of the World Series. Boston's up. Martin's unabashedly mid-20th-century mainstream fiction style isperfectly suited to this wedding of multigenerational saga and detective drama. Agent: Robert Gottlieb/Trident Media GroupFrom the Publisher
"A fast-moving political thriller..." —- The Boston Globe on The Lost Constitution "A master storyteller."—-Seattle Post-Intelligencer "A rip-roaring page-turner. A perfect read."—-The Boston Globe on Back Bay"Utterly fascinating . . . The unexpected twists and turns will keep readers guessing and the pages turning."—-Booklist on Harvard Yard
"Spellbinding . . . ingenious."—-Cincinnati Enquirer on Back Bay
"Teems with memorable characters . . . suspense, authenticity, and conflict."—-Chicago Tribune on Cape Cod
"A deft, spicy, and exciting blend of fact and fiction."—-USA Today on Citizen Washington
"A writer whose smoothness matches his ambition."—-Publishers Weekly on Annapolis