July and August 2025 Reading

I always combine July and August because I'm away on vacation during that time. This year July found me unable to tolerate reading almost anything except mysteries, my comfort read.  I binged two different mystery series and read a number of stand alone mysteries.  By the end of the month I was on vacation at the lake and was able to read more literary fiction.

Since I read so many books I thought I would organize them differently this month. 

MY FAVORITES OF THE BOOKS I READ IN JULY/AUGUST

The Wedding People by Alison Espach

Phoebe Stone arrives at the Cornwall Inn in Newport, Rhode Island dressed to the nines but with no luggage. Phoebe has a dark plan for herself. The hotel is fully booked with a wedding party and guests for a wedding that has been planned down to the last detail. People that Phoebe doesn't know, in fact Phoebe is the only person at the Inn not involved with the wedding  In a surprising twist Phoebe and the bride, Lila, grow to know each other and confide in each other. I didn't know what to expect with this novel but it ended up being a fascinating examination of the paths that life can unexpectedly take us on. Phoebe was an interesting character with multiple layers. Her interactions with the wedding people revealed things to the reader and to Phoebe. Espach was not afraid to take Phoebe into some dark places: trigger warning for discussion of suicide. There are, however, light hearted elements to the story and people who like romance novels more than I do will enjoy those parts. I found some of the "coincidences" that were necessary for that part of the story to be a bit eye rolling but not enough to ruin the story for me. If you like character driven novels you will enjoy this novel. It has a good plot but it is the characters that make it work. 

The Narrow Land by Christine Dwyer Hickey

It is summer on Cape Cod. The painter, Edward Hopper, and his wife are in their summer residence where he is struggling to find a subject for a painting.  Down the beach is a rented house with two young boys both struggling with the aftermath of World War II.  This novel is, simultaneously, a picture of the complicated marriage of the Hoppers, an examination of the effect of war, and a questioning of the meaning of The American Dream. This novel won the Walter Scott Prize for fiction in 2020 and it is well deserved.  Although there is a plot, it is more of a character study over one short summer. The writing is exquisite and the sense of place is real. I admit that I didn't figure out that the painter was Edward Hopper until I read some reviews after I finished.

Conclave by Robert Harris

This novel became popular after the film version came out, which I never saw.  I meant to watch it while the new pope was being chosen but the choosing happened so fast that I never had time. The novel is excellent.  Harris depicts the intrigues so well and I felt like I was in the Sistine Chapel with the Cardinals.  I've now read four novels by Harris and I've loved each of them even though each of them was so different from the others.  

The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams

This is the story of Esme, a young motherless girl, and her growth into womanhood, and also the story of  the birth of the Oxford English Dictionary. As Esme discovers, there are many words in everyday use that weren't making it into the dictionary because they weren't used in print either because the people who used them were illiterate or the words were considered too vulgar to print.  Esme sets out to save those words and along the way encounters the woman's suffrage movement and World War I.  One thing I particularly liked about this novel was that Williams did not shy away from the tragedy of World War I - many novels feel compelled to have a happy ending when in reality there were more tragedies than happy endings.  Again, this is mostly a character driven novel and it is a big plus if you love words.

MYSTERIES I READ IN JULY/AUGUST

The Rowland Sinclair Mystery Series:

    Gentlemen Formerly Dressed by Sulari Gentill
    A Murder Unmentioned by Sulari Gentill
    Give the Devil His Due by Sulari Gentill
    A Dangerous Language by Sulari Gentill
    Shanghai Secrets by Sulari Gentill
    Where There's a Will by Sulari Gentill

Because of the situation in the world I decided that July would be taken up mostly with mysteries because they would distract me from my anxiety. It is a mark of how much I enjoy the Rowland Sinclair mystery series that I keep reading the books even though the fact that they take place during the rise of fascism in the 1930's does not relieve any of my anxiety. In fact, one of the books I read in June took place in Germany where the main character was attacked by Brownshirts and, well, let's just say I found it very hard to read. This month I was able to find the rest of the series at the library and I checked out all of them and binged them. Rowland and his friends are now safely out of Germany (whew). First, in Gentlemen Formerly Dressed they are in London where (of course) they stumble across a murder. In addition they deal with the fact that German authorities may be after them. Then in A Murder Unmentioned they are back home in Australia where Rowland's past comes back to haunt him.  They solve murders and avoid the local fascists. Give the Devil His Due involves a car race (and murders). A Dangerous Language has a complicated plot that puts Rowland back on an ocean liner for a short time but this time in steerage. Shanghai Secrets finds the gang in Shanghai where people are trying to kill Rowland. In Where There's a Will the gang travels to America because Rowly has been named the executor of the estate of a murdered friend. One of the things I very much enjoy in this series is how Gentill peppers the story with side characters that Rowland happens to meet who are real historical characters. Whenever he meets a side character I google them if I don't recognize the name and more often than not they turn out to be a historical character. I have now finished the series and I'm sad. I hope Gentill writes more about Rowland and his friends. I heartily recommend this series if you like reading books with a good sense of place and good characters. The plots are sometimes a little far fetched but fun and I usually don't guess whodunnit. 

The Lake District Mysteries Series:

    The Coffin Trail by Martin Edwards
    The Cipher Garden by Martin Edwards
    The Arsenic Labyrinth by Martin Edwards
    The Serpent Pool by Martin Edwards
    The Hanging Wood by Martin Edwards
    The Frozen Shroud by Martin Edwards
    The Dungeon House by Martin Edwards
    The Girl They All Forgot by Martin Edwards

When I finished with Rowland Sinclair series I was looking for a new mystery series to binge. I like books in series because if the first book sets everything up will then I can immerse myself in the universe for the rest of the books. Back in January I read the first book in a series by Martin Edwards called Gallows Court and I considered reading the follow up books. Then I discovered that Edwards had written a series called The Lake District Mysteries.  These are set, as you can guess, in the Lake District of England which I have never visited. Edwards does an excellent job giving the reader a sense of place and I am always a sucker for a good sense of place especially if I've never visited the place. The main characters are Hannah Scarlett, a detective leading a Cold Case Team, and Daniel Kind, a historian who has left Oxford behind to settle in the Lake District and write. Daniel is the son of a policeman, Hannah's deceased mentor.  Edwards does a good job with these two main characters, making them interesting and giving them a degree of depth. He's a bit less successful with the secondary characters - he gives them interesting backgrounds but often their personalities seemed a little too stereotypical for me (the men usually think with a certain body part and the women are always all able to seduce the men).  He has decent ideas for plots and they move along but he often relies on a few tropes - suicide, couples splitting up because of infidelity. I also think his editors did him no favors because there were at least a couple of continuity problems between books or even in the same book.   I obviously liked the series enough to read all the books but when you binge a series you notice the flaws more.  I think this is a series that would be enjoyed more if the books were read a year or so apart. 

A Tarnished Canvas by Anna Lee Huber

The latest in the Lady Darby mystery series, we find Lady Darby back in Edinburgh with her husband and 1 year old child preparing for a 1 year old birthday party and also finishing some paintings for an exhibition. An invitation to the sale of art and other objets d'art of a local deceased lord arrives at the house. She and Gage decide to go. There is one painting she is interested in that will be up for auction on the third day. She and Gage show up on the third day and a disaster ensues resulting in bodily harm to many people and the death of one man.  Was it an accident or was someone behind it, and if someone is behind it what was the purpose?  According to the afterward, this situation is based on a real occurrence in Edinburgh history.  This series takes place in the 1830s, a period I'm not really familiar with. At one point Lady Darby complains about the big sleeves of the fashions of the day so I looked them up and, wow! They were really big sleeves!  I always enjoy this series and this was one of my favorite books so far. You could read this as a standalone but I think would be more enjoyable if the reader has read the entire series. 

The Shell House Detectives by Emylia Hall

This was a book I picked up while browsing at the library and it turned out to be a winner.  Ally Bright is a widow in her early sixties living in The Shell House, a cottage on the western coast of Cornwall.  The western coast is the coast with palm trees and surfing (I've seen it with my own eyes).  One night a distraught young man arrives at her door looking for Bill, Ally's deceased husband who was in local law enforcement. The next day the young man is found at the foot of a cliff, unconscious but not dead, by Jayden Westen a young newcomer to Cornwall and a former policeman. In the meantime, a local woman has disappeared.  It's too complicated to say why Jayden and Ally team up to discover what happened to the woman and the unconscious man who lies in the hospital. My only complaint about this novel is that the point of view jumps around between various characters and that just isn't a style I like too much if there are too many points of view.  But I liked Ally and Jayden and I loved the setting. It looks like this will be the first book in a series and I will be sure to read the follow ups. 

There Will Be Bodies by Lindsay Davis

This is the next book in the Flavia Albia series set during ancient Roman times. I was somewhat disappointed in the last few books of this series but this one was a good return to form. Flavia Albia's husband Manlius is hired by his uncle to do a construction/cleanup job in southern Italy near the destroyed city of Pompeii.  As Manlius warns his crew - there will be bodies. And there are.  But clearly one of these bodies was not destroyed in the volcanic eruption. Flavia Albia is on the case to determine who the murderer was. I really liked the setting of this book.  There also wasn't too much exposition (as there was in the last few books).  

Murder Takes a Vacation by Laura Lippman

Muriel Blossom is a middle aged widow setting out on a vacation to England and France. On the plane she meets a very nice man who shows her around London. But then it's on to France and the river cruise she is taking with a friend.  Murder ensues.  It's a good thing that Muriel used to work for private investigator Tess Monaghan (the main character in Lippman's other successful series).  I enjoyed this book but had trouble sometimes believing that Muriel knew so little about travel. But that is probably because I have been a traveler often. This is a great book to take on a vacation. 

The Lake House by Kate Morton

Back in the 1930's, at an estate in Cornwall, a child went missing and was never found. Decades later, Sadie Sparrow comes upon the house which is completely shut up as if the family left and never returned. Sadie is on leave from her job as a police investigator and decides to use her leave time to look into the cold case of the missing child.  This novel jumps back and forth between the two time periods, which is a format that I'm extremely tired of.  But other than that I enjoyed this novel very much.

The Edinburgh Murders by Catriona McPherson

This is the second in a series featuring a woman who is an early social worker in post war Edinburgh.  I've enjoyed both of these mysteries and hope she continues the series.  This one involves a victim who is boiled to death in the local bath house.  My great grandma worked in a bath house and I kept picturing her in there.  This murder is followed by other equally mysterious deaths. 

Battle Mountain by CJ Box

Wyoming Game Warden, Joe Pickett, is back with another mystery to solve and his friend Nate (on the run from the law) seems to be coming at the same mystery from a different location and angle.  As usual, in real life Joe would probably have been killed without the intervention of a deus ex machina.  That didn't matter to me because I love the setting of these mysteries and Box keeps the pages turning. 

Capital Crimes: London Mysteries edited by Martin Edwards. 

This book of short stories was another of the British Library Crime Collection that I inherited from my mom.  I don't generally like short stories but some of these were very good.  I particularly liked a story by JS Fletcher and would like to read a whole novel by that author. 

OTHER BOOKS I READ IN JULY/AUGUST

The Garden of Forking Paths by Jorge Luis Borges (tr. by Andrew Hurley)

The Garden of Forking Paths is a book published in Spanish in 1941 that was included in "Fictions" in 1944. My BlueSky readalong group chose selections from Fictions for a July readalong. I had misgivings from the start. I don't particularly like short stories. I seldom read works in translation because I'm always suspicious that the translation doesn't capture the original language. I also have discovered over the last year that I'm not much interested in post-modern literature. Fictions included three books of short stories: The Garden of Forking Paths, Artifices and The Aleph. I only made it through the first book before I threw in the towel. I do think Borges was a brilliant writer but the "stories" often took the form of literature critiques. I love to read lit crit but these were critiques of made up stories and I found that I just wasn't interested in spending the time figuring out what he was saying about stories and situations that didn't really exist. 

Sandwich by Catherine Newman

A family vacations every year on Cape Cod in the same rental house for twenty years.  They know all the quirks of the house, good and bad. This year there is the mother, father, the two adult children and one child's girlfriend.  And the grandparents also come for a few days.  All as usual. This novel is a snapshot of a period of time in a family as the members deal with menopause, unplanned pregnancies, aging, and life in general.  Rocky, the mother, thinks back on prior years of vacations.  This is a good book to read on vacation - especially if you've been vacationing in the same cabin for more than twenty years as I have. 

The Secret Book of Flora Lea by Patti Callahan Henry

Another book about a child that goes missing.  Twenty years later the older sister, Hazel, comes across a book written by an American author that is essentially the story she herself made up for her younger sister.  How did the American writer know the story?  This book is very good at capturing what it was like for the children who were sent to the country during the London Blitz. It is a page turner but I thought there were too many unbelievable coincidences that were needed to tie up the plot.

Finlay Donovan is Killing It by Elle Cosimano

Finlay Donovan is a struggling writer and a divorced mom. At a meeting with her agent, at which her agent is urging her to finish off her latest book, a woman overhears the conversation and misunderstands. She thinks Finlay is a gun for hire and she would like her husband killed.  Well, Finlay DOES need the money. But is she a killer?  This is a humorous book. If you like humorous novels (which aren't my favorite) you'd probably like this one. I'm not sure if it is intended to be a series but I can definitely see it being made into a television show. 

Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar

This is the story of Cyrus Shams whose mother died when the US Navy accidentally shot down an Iranian passenger jet.  Cyrus is a recovering addict and a poet who becomes obsessed with the idea of martyrdom. I tend to find books about addicts a bit boring (they always think they are so interesting, but they aren't).  This novel is well written but I never could connect with the main character.  And I didn't find the ending as surprising as I think the author meant for me to find it - I thought it was telegraphed well in advance.

All Fours by Miranda July

Talk about not connecting with a character. I couldn't connect with the main character of this novel at all. She leaves on a cross country trip from LA to New York but thirty miles away she stops, checks into a motel and stays there the whole trip - redecorating the motel room on her own nickel.  I always dislike when a novel is written in the first person and that person is someone whose head I don't want to be in.  I think this novel was supposed to be funny or ironic or ... something.  But I couldn't wait for it to be over. 

The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham 

A short novel about a woman who makes a bad marriage, has an affair and then her husband takes her to a cholera ravaged region in the hopes that she will die.  That sounds depressing but I liked this novel as the main character came into her own through adversity. It also had a great sense of place. 

Poems by Anne Michaels

Last year one of my favorite books was Held by Anne Michaels, who is a Canadian poet. So I decided to read some of her poetry. This volume was a compilation of three books of poetry:  The Weight of Oranges, Miner's Pond and Skin Divers. Her poems explore love in all its facets - in the present and in historical persons.  I don't understand enough about poetry to really understand everything she did but I did enjoy many of the poems. 

Rainy Lake Rendezvous by Janet Kay

I can't imagine anyone would really enjoy this novel if you haven't spent time in Voyageur's National Park, as I have.  I recognized all of the landmarks.  That's about the best thing I can say about it. 

Great Lakes Creoles: A French Indian Community on the Northern Borderlands, Prairie du Chien, 1750-1860 by Lucy Eldersveld Murphy. 

Again, I can't imagine anyone wanting to read this book unless you, like I, am interested in French Colonial History in North America and its aftermath.  I liked this book which went into a lot of detail of the history of Prairie du Chien under the American Regime.  

My Revolutionary War Ancestors

Since it is Independence Day I thought I would republish a story from long ago. This is the story of the family of my paternal grandmother whose maiden name was Scheetz. Her grandfather (my great, great grandfather) was named Iron Scheetz and when my dad and I started our genealogy search all we knew was that he came from Bucks County Pennsylvania. Eventually we traced his family to a Conrad Scheetz who came to Philadelphia before the American Revolution and eventually settled near Germantown Pennsylvania.  He married a local girl named Christiana Pflieger who lived near Germantown in Chestnut Hill. The Pfliegers lived in Chestnut Hill before, during and after the American Revolution and survived the Battle of Germantown. This is their story as pieced together by my dad and me. I hope you enjoy it.

I

Germantown Road - 1757

What is today known as Germantown Avenue is a very old road that began as an Indian path. From the commercial part of old Philadelphia the old Germantown Road headed northwest, eventually climbing Chestnut Hill where it forked. One fork would take the traveler to Plymouth Meeting. The other fork was the Bethlehem Pike. In 1753, Frederick Pflieger traveled as far as the forks where, instead of choosing a direction, he settled down to raise a family.

Little is known about Frederick Pflieger and it is not clear when he arrived in America. He might be the Georg Friderich Pflieger who arrived in Philadelphia from Rotterdam on the ship Richard and Mary on September 17, 1753.[i] That Frederick Pflieger appears on the Captain’s list as “Jurg Fredk Fleger” but he signed the oath of allegiance and the oath of abjuration as Georg Friderich Pflieger. There were, though, other Frederick Pfliegers in Pennsylvania in 1753 and, perhaps, the Frederick Pflieger of Chestnut Hill was related to one of them. He may have been a brother of Maria Caterina Pflieger who, in 1757, was the wife of Martin Hauser and lived just down the road from Pflieger.[ii]

Even less is known of Frederick Pflieger’s wife except that her name was Christiana. Did she come with him from Germany or did he meet her in America? No one knows. What is known is that Frederick and Christiana had four children who survived: Godfrey (Gottfried), George, Sarah, and Christiana. His daughter Christiana eventually married someone named Conrad Scheetz and our family is descended from them.[iii]

Frederick Pflieger was not one of the first settlers on Chestnut Hill, although the settlement was not very large when he arrived. Seventy years before, in 1684, William Penn granted 5,700 acres of land that became known as “the German Township” to a group of immigrants from Frankfort and the Palatine who were seeking religious freedom. The settlement was originally intended to have four villages (Germantown, Cresheim, Sommerhausen and Crefeld) situated along the Germantown Road, or the Great Road as it was called then. But the southern village, called Germantown, predominated over the others so much that the entire area became known as Germantown. Sommerhausen would eventually be known almost exclusively by its descriptive name of Chestnut Hill.[iv]

At that time the Great Road was still little more than a path that was almost impassable in the winter when it was muddy. Although the center of Philadelphia was only five miles away it took more than two hours to travel there from Germantown. Because of this, Germantown became a meeting place for the rural farmers who did not want to travel all the way to Philadelphia and the merchants of Philadelphia who wanted to trade salt, fish, seeds and dry goods for the produce of the farmers. Inns and stores were strung out along the Great Road.[v]

But Germantown was also filled with craftsmen, most of them German. By 1790 there were seven workshops for every one store in Germantown.[vi] The German immigrants who settled Germantown were a people for whom crafts were commonplace. From the first they spun flax and made linen. Weaving was a big industry in Germantown (cloth, linen and fustian) but there were also tailors, shoemakers, locksmiths and carpenters.[vii]

In Germantown, occupations included the leather crafts, woodworking and building crafts, metal crafts, food preparation, professionals and others. But tax and probate records from 1773 show that fabric crafts was the single biggest occupation; 57 Germantown men listed their occupation as something to do with the fabric crafts. Those working in fabric crafts included stocking weavers, general weavers, tailors, hatters, dyers, fullers and breeches makers.[viii]

Young Frederick Pflieger was one of these persons. He was a blue dyer.[ix] A blue dyer was the equivalent of a master dyer because blue was the most difficult color with which to dye. In the days before synthetic colors were invented, indigo was the source of blue coloring and indigo was difficult to work with. Blue dyers knew how to make the color stick and were a specialized part of the fabric industry.[x]

II

Frederick Pflieger – Blue Dyer

When Frederick Pflieger settled on Chestnut Hill, he bought a small piece of property fronting on the Great Road just below the forks. From what we can tell by looking at contemporary maps, it would today be located on Germantown Avenue between Highland Avenue and Evergreen Avenue on the right side of the street as you head out of Philadelphia toward the suburbs (it is hard to tell if that is north or east). Only one-acre, it originally had a small log house that had been built about fifteen years previously by a butcher named John Slaughter. The property had changed hands multiple times since Slaughter built the house and Pflieger bought the lot from a fellow named Jacob Souder. It is not clear if the dwelling was still a simple logg house or if the house had been replaced.[xi]

The new Pflieger property was next to a substantial two story stone building owned by John Shepherd (whom the Germans called John Schaeffer). Shepherd had purchased the property near the forks in 1738 and had constructed the building to be used as an inn where people traveling to and from Philadelphia could break their journey. Later he added a shop in which he sold goods to the locals as well as the travelers.[xii]

Living next to an inn may have been convenient for Pflieger especially if he was engaging in dye work for persons who weren’t local. Inns were where travelers stopped and that meant wagons and stage coaches stopped too. These vehicles could carry goods as well as passengers. Another Germantown blue-dyer, Jacob Beck, advertised in New Jersey that customers could “send their yarn, cloth, etc.,” to him by leaving it at a local inn in Trenton where the innkeeper would see that it was sent on to him. It is possible that Frederick Pflieger used Shepherd’s inn the same way. [xiii]

Although there is no record that explicitly states that Pflieger had his dye house on his property, there is no indication that he had any other property in the vicinity and most crafts did tend to be done at home. If Pflieger did his blue-dying at his Chestnut Hill property, what would it have been like? Asa Ellis published the first book in the United States on dying in 1798 and gave this advice:

"Your dyehouse should be sixteen or twenty feet square; well furnished with light and placed near a stream; water being essentially necessary for preparing your cloths, and for rinsing them when dyed. The floor should be made of leached ashes and it will soon become hard and render you more secure from fire.

"Your copper, or coppers, should be situated near the centre of the house; and the blue vat, about six feet from the coppers, in which you intend to heat the blue die.

"The size of your blue vat will be in proportion to the business you expect. The common size and dimensions are as follow; viz it should be five feet deep, three feet diameter at the top, and twenty inches at the bottom. Place your vat two feet in the earth, for the sake of conveniency; observe that its cover fit close. …"A copper or caldron is necessary for all dyers. The business cannot be carried on without one or more of them. Your largest copper should contain sixty, or seventy gallons. It should be set in a brick furnace; because that will heat your copper sooner. The top of the furnace, which encloses the copper ought to be six inches thick, so that you may plank the brick work, and nail the lip of the copper to the plank and plaister of the furnace. Then your copper, with care, can be kept clean, which is absolutely necessary.

…"Those, who intend to dye indigo blue, must have an iron kettle, that will hold a pailful, in order to grind indigo; and an iron ball, of twelve pounds weight; one of eighteen pounds is better. [xiv]

Operating a dye house would have been a smelly business because one of the key ingredients in blue dying was urine. The process of preparing the indigo was a delicate process.

The indigo had to be solubilized in order to be suitable for dyeing. In order to be solubilized the indigo had to be reduced or in other words "de-oxygenated." In the early days, the only satisfactory method for carrying this on was by a fermentation process wherein the required reducing conditions were set up. Both bran and madder as well as urine each contributed its own ferments and bacteria. One fermenting ingredient might give quick reducing action and then lose its power whereas another material might be slower but last longer. Hence the use of a combination of natural ingredients which would contribute various ferments to the bath. Only through long experience could a vat dyer tell when conditions were right. To plague him even more, the natural materials such as bran and madder varied from lot to lot in their fermenting power. An indigo vat had to be nurtured and tended as carefully as one might a child. The vat required the dyer's constant attention and care. No vat dyer of the old days could listen to a five o'clock whistle. In fact, the dyer's living quarters often were attached to the dyehouse so that he could constantly watch his vat and keep it in "the best of health."[xv]

That last sentence tells us that Frederick Pflieger’s dye house was probably on the one acre lot with the little log house.

Next to Pflieger, along the Great Road, was a three acre lot bought in 1751 by Jasper Scull son of the provincial Surveyor General. Scull was a blacksmith and built a small house on the property.[xvi] But in 1758 the Sculls sold the property to Martin Erdman, a shoemaker. It isn’t clear if this happened before or after the Pfliegers moved to Chestnut Hill. Martin Erdman lived until 1798 and his son stayed on Chestnut Hill, so the Erdmans would have been fixtures in the lives of the Pfliegers.[xvii]

Behind Pflieger, without any frontage on the Great Road, was a small tract of land with a house that had originally been built by the husband of one of John Slaughter’s daughters, Andrew Campbell, who was a carpenter. Presumably Campbell was still living there when the Pfliegers moved in although his wife, who is not listed in her father’s 1759 will, was probably dead. John Slaughter had another daughter, Elizabeth, who married in 1758, the year the Pflieger’s moved in. Her husband was Michael Millberger “a young victualler from the city” and, in 1760, Campbell sold the land to Millberger who was buying up land during that year. It isn’t clear if the Millbergers lived on that land or one of the other pieces of land that Millberger owned near that portion of the road, although if Campbell was a decent carpenter it was probably a fairly nice house. [xviii]

III

Frederick Pflieger and his Neighbors

The early years in Chestnut Hill could not have been easy for the Pfliegers. The winter of 1759 was severe and included a March snow that lasted 18 hours.[xix] There was also a war going on. The English colonists of Pennsylvania were fighting the French and Indians as part of a great world war known in Europe as the Seven Years War. The attacks by the French and Indians did not reach as far as Philadelphia, but it would have been a time of anxiety as travelers brought back news from the western reaches of Pennsylvania where fighting was going on.

In 1763, with the war finally over, the Pfliegers found they had a new neighbor. John Shepherd had sold his inn and his other acreage to Samuel Bachman, a saddler and innkeeper from Northhampton County.[xx]

That year also saw the opening of the first stagecoach line that went all the way to Bethlehem from Philadelphia. The stage stopped near the forks twice a week, on the way to and from Bethlehem.[xxi] Perhaps the Great Road had been improved as part of the war and could now handle wheeled traffic better than before.

Bachman only kept the Shepherd property a little more than ten years. In addition to running the tavern/inn, Bachman was a skin dresser. In 1774 he sold the portion of the property nearest the Pfliegers to Henry Cress, a hatter who had lived in the Chestnut Hill community a long time.[xxii] According to local lore, Cress continued to operate an inn while he carried on his trade as a hatter. In those days hatters worked mainly with animal skins, particularly beaver skins. The guard hairs of the beaver pelts would be removed by hand and then the remaining fur would be removed via a process using mercury. The removed fur, called fluff, was processed into hats. The hats would eventually be dyed.[xxiii] Perhaps Henry Cress worked with Frederick Pflieger to dye his hats.

Bachman sold the remainder of the Shepherd property to John Biddis, who like him was a skin dresser.[xxiv] Biddis would work with tanned or partially tanned hides and finish them with dye and glaze. Again, perhaps Frederick Pflieger worked with Biddis in dying his finished skins. One can only imagine what this portion of Chestnut Hill smelled like with Pflieger operating a dye house, Cress creating hats and Biddis dressing skins. Any smell must not have bothered the locals and travelers because, in addition to his principal trade, Biddis also operated a tavern called “The Bonny Jockey” on his premises.

IV

War Comes to Chestnut Hill

In 1775, Elizabeth Millberger, the neighbor of the Pfliegers, died.[xxv] Then, in April 1775 news reached Chestnut Hill of the altercations in the Massachusetts Bay colony between the colonists and the British army. Meetings were called to discuss the matter in Germantown.[xxvi] Whether Frederick Pflieger, Henry Cress and John Biddis attended the meeting is not known. Over the next year and a half the residents would learn that the British colonies were declaring independence from Britain, the colonial army had held off the British army in Massachusetts, the British had taken New York and, finally, armies were converging on Philadelphia.

In 1777 a Militia Act was passed ordering the enrollment of all able bodied men between the ages of 18 and 53. The new recruits in Chestnut Hill were made part of the First Company of the 2^nd Battalion of the Philadelphia County Militia. The First Company was further divided into classes which were to be called into service in rotation. Frederick Pflieger was in the 6^th Class.[xxvii] The first three classes were called up in the beginning of the summer.

Washington arrived at the beginning of August and on August 8^, 1777 the residents of Germantown and Chestnut Hill watched as 11,000 troops made their way from Philadelphia to Whitemarsh. The troops would have passed in front of the Pflieger’s home. The object was for the troops to encamp at Whitemarsh but news that General Howe was advancing caused a change in plans. The fourth class was called up to assist[xxviii].

Washington’s army was defeated at the Brandywine and marched back through Germantown in defeat a week later. The 5^th and 6^th classes, which included Frederick Pflieger, were called out to build “small redoubts” along the Schuylkill. The Great Road was filled with people fleeing Philadelphia.[xxix]

For a week, there was no news. Then on September 23, 1777 came word that the British were marching on Germantown. The defenses had not held. Two days later, on September 25 the predominantly German-speaking people of Chestnut Hill watched a column of the British Army go past heading into the village of Germantown. As the British Army settled into Germantown and September turned into October, the people tried to go on with their lives. The 5^th company with Frederick Pflieger was still presumably out with the colonial army while the people of Chestnut Hill made hay.[xxx]

Then on the morning of October 4, 1777, the people of Chestnut Hill woke to find that Washington was sending troops down the Great Road into Germantown. The Battle of Germantown had begun. Fortunately for the Pfliegers and their neighbors, Chestnut Hill was far enough away from the village of Germantown that they sustained no damage.

Washington’s action was unsuccessful and eventually the colonial troops streamed back past the Chestnut Hill residents in defeat, pursued by some British troops. On October 17 the British requisitioned all the horses in the area and entered Philadelphia. As the British moved out of Germantown the colonial forces cautiously moved in, leaving a force at Henry Cress’ place next door to the Pfliegers.[xxxi]

On October 22, 1777, the 7^th and 8^th classes were called out because the tours of the 5^th and 6^th classes were due to expire. Frederick Pflieger presumably came home with the others who had survived. Despite the nearby battle of Germantown, he would have found that Chestnut Hill had not suffered much damage.

The fortunes of the Chestnut Hill residents would change when, on December 5, 1777, General Howe, knowing the state of Washington’s army, decided to attack the American forces. 12,000 British troops headed to Chestnut Hill. In the lead were troops led by General Cornwallis.

Arriving at the forks about eight in the morning, the British Army halted to survey the situation. . Entering Matthias Busch’s house, General Howe found Matthias’ son Solomon in bed recovering from wounds received in battle and Matthias’ wife an expectant mother. Posting guards over the invalid and threatening the poor woman, General Howe established temporary headquarters in the place.

Once established on Chestnut Hill, Howe didn’t move at once.

All during the 6^th, the Army lay at Chestnut Hill, threatening such inhabitants as ventured out of doors, invading the houses of the defenseless villagers to ransack them for hidden arms and supplies … Informed by some disaffected person that Henry Cress’ house had been used as barracks by the outpost, the British plundered the house and set it afire.[xxxii]

After the war was over, Henry Cress’ widow Amelia would ask for restitution, stating that “during the invasion, the valuable house her husband owned near Germantown was occupied as a barrack by the Continental troops [and] that by information to the enemy it was consumed by fire.” In fact two of Henry Cress’s buildings were destroyed by fire. The damage to the Cress place was placed at ₤1275, second only to a claim by Julius Kerper who had one of the “best developed” farms in the area. The area near the forks appears to have been hard hit. Cress’s neighbor, Frederick Pflieger, claimed damages of ₤200 as did Pflieger’s neighbor on the other side, Martin Erdman. Michael Millberger estimated a loss of about ₤680 although it is not clear from which property. [xxxiii]

Eventually the British moved off the hill. But the war wasn’t over for Chestnut Hill. Through the winter the British passed along the Great Road regularly. Then in the spring, 2,000 British troops appeared at the forks. Although battle sounds could be heard in the distance, the troops on Chestnut Hill did not move.

It was not until later that the hill learned that the entire operation had been part of an abortive attempt by General Howe to surprise and trap the French general Lafayette who had been established with a fair force as an outpost at the Barren Hill church.

This was the last major action that Chestnut Hill and the Pfliegers witnessed. By July of 1778 the British had evacuated Philadelphia and the Continental Army was off in pursuit. But although the military was finished with Chestnut Hill the inhabitants were still affected by the war, especially because of the requisitioning of supplies and the devaluing of the continental currency.

The residents of Chestnut Hill tried to pick up the pieces left from the British. Some people left. John Biddis bought the small bit of property between his property and Henry Cress’s property that had a two story stone house on it which had been occupied by Michael Berndollar. The Hausers moved to Lancaster, so if Mrs. Hauser was Frederick Pflieger’s sister he lost a nearby family member. Although the militias were still called out, it seems that many men from Chestnut Hill preferred to pay the fines than to leave their homes.[xxxiv]

V

After the War

In 1783, with the war over, changes started to come to Chestnut Hill. John Biddis decided to move to Philadelphia and sell his property, presumably including the two story stone house he had purchased from Berndollar. Biddis, in addition to operating the Tavern and practicing the art of skin dressing was also a tinkerer. He invented a new white lead paint and decided to move to the city to exploit this idea.[xxxv] In July 1784, Frederick Pflieger purchased the portion of the Biddis place that had been the tavern for ₤425 and he and his wife moved down the road. Four years later they purchased the remainder of the property for ₤300. They rented their original property to their daughter Christiana and her new husband, Conrad Scheetz. They were married on November 11, 1784 at St. Michael’s church in Germantown.[xxxvi]

The origins of Conrad Scheetz are almost as much of a mystery as the origins of Frederick Pflieger. Conrad Scheetz came to Chestnut Hill during the revolution but it is not clear why. Although there were other residents on Chestnut Hill with the name of Scheetz (or, sometimes, Schutz), it does not appear that Conrad Scheetz was related to them. Among the group of original Crefeld investors who had purchased land from William Penn, one was named Scheetz but, although he purchased the land, he never emigrated and his wife eventually sold it back to the investor group. Some think that the various Scheetz families who showed up in Pennsylvania over the next fifty years were related to him and, so, indirectly related to each other. But this is simply a guess, no one ever proved it.

Conrad Scheetz was a hatter by trade. Of course the Pfliegers’ neighbor, Henry Cress, was also a hatter by trade so it seems probable Christiana Pflieger met Conrad Scheetz through Henry Cress.[xxxvii]

Some say Conrad Scheetz was the son of a papermaker named Scheetz who had settled in Germantown in 1737 and then moved away. But others say he is the Conrad Scheetz who emigrated aboard the ship Loyal Judith in 1743.[xxxviii] If he was, then he may have been as old as, or older than, Frederick Pflieger who may have immigrated in 1753 which might account for why Christiana outlived him by so long. According to Conrad Scheetz’ grandchildren, Conrad Scheetz was originally from Philadelphia and then moved to Germantown. Perhaps he was displaced by the war. According to his great-grandson Grier Scheetz, Conrad had two brothers, Philip (who settled in Montgomery County) and Jacob (who settled in Berks County). [xxxix]

On December 12, 1785, Christiana Scheetz gave birth to George Scheetz.[xl] When George was five years old, in 1790, his parents, who had been renting the house in Chestnut Hill from the Pfliegers, purchased the property for ₤22. They would also eventually buy the old Millberger property next door, giving them a frontage of 150 feet on the Great Road.[xli] According to the 1790 Federal Census Conrad Scheetz was living in Germantown in a household with four free white males of 16 years or older, three white males under the age of 16 years and 1 free white female. The female was obviously Christiana and the three children were George and his brothers Johannes and Jacob. One of the men was Conrad. Who were the three other men? They could have been workers. Or maybe at least one was related to Conrad or Christiana. The census records at the time have no additional information.

Christiana Scheetz’ father, Frederick Pflieger, died on November 19, 1806 according to probate records (according to his tombstone in St. Michael’s churchyard he died November 20, 1806, aged 80 years, 2 months and 18 days). His will was probated on January 2, 1807 in the Germantown Township, City of Philadelphia. He left the profit of his estate to his wife Christiana (that means she could use all the property but not sell it). After her death, the executors were to sell the “house wherein I dwell in Germantown Township” and the proceeds from the sale were to go to his son Godfrey “Pfleager”, his daughter Sarah Dedier (making clear that her husband Peter Dedier was to have no claim) and his grandson John Dedier. He also left a legacy to his daughter Christiana, the wife of Conrad “Schuetz”. The residue of the estate was to go to his sons George and Godfrey and his daughters Sarah and Christiana. His executors were his wife Christiana and his nephew George Jarrett. (We have not traced the connection to the Jarretts yet). The will was witnessed by, among others, George Cress who must have been the son of Henry Cress.[xlii]

We do not know how long his wife Christiana lived after Frederick died. Conrad Scheetz is said to have died not long after his father-in-law, in 1812.[xliii] We do not know when Christiana Pflieger Scheetz died, only that she survived Conrad by “many years”. Their son, George Scheetz, would also become a hatter but would eventually move to Bucks County where he became a teacher and was a founding member of Keller’s Church. He has descendents throughout Bucks County but one grandson, Iron Scheetz, moved west to St. Louis giving him descendents west of the Mississippi also.

---

[i]Strassberger and Hinke, Pennsylvania German Pioneers, Volume I, 531-53-55, Lists201-A-B-C.

[ii]Roach, Hannah Benner. The Back Part of Germantown: A Reconstruction. The Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania, Monograph Series No. 7 (2001), p. 29. I tried to trace the Hausers to see if that would lead me anywhere but could find nothing.

[iii] Wills: Abstracts, Book 2 - Part A: 1806 - 1807: Philadelphia Co, PA , see will of Frederick Pflueger. There may, of course, have been other children who did not survive but these are the only children listed in his will.

[iv]Wolf, Stephanie Grauman, Urban Village: Population, Community and Family Structure in Germantown Pennsylvania, 1683-1800, Princeton University Press Princeton New Jersey 1976, p. 23.

[v] Wolf, p. 25.

[vi] Wolf, p. 103.

[vii] Wolf, p. 105

[viii] Wolf, p. 107

[ix] Roach, p. 29. The age of Pflieger can be computed from his tombstone. It was apparently the custom among the Pennsylvania Germans to put the exact number of years, months and days that the deceased had lived. Roach, per her footnotes, must have gotten her information on his profession from the Pennsylvania deed books which we’ve not been able to examine.

[x] Edelstein, Sidney, Coppers, Kettles and Vats: Equipment in Early Dyehouses, Transcribed from The American Dyestuff Reporter Vol 44, April 1955.

[xi] Roach, p. 29 and pp. 9-10. Roach’s book is the result of her examination of all the deed records for Chestnut Hill in the early years. The deed, which we have not yet been able to see, must describe the dwelling on the property. The original owner of the property was John Streeper William Streeper had come to Germantown with the first batch of settlers in 1683 and his land grant was very large. One of his children was John Streeper who ended up with a great deal of property. The land was mostly farmland and when Streeper died in 1740 his widow began selling off pieces including the one acre lot sold to John Slaughter in 1741 and the adjoining land sold to John Shepherd for use as an inn. It was Slaughter who erected a “logg house” on the lot. Streeper’s widow also sold a small half-acre lot below the Shepherd property to Samuel Channel. Later, Streeper’s son sold nine acres of land on the other side of the Channel property to Shepherd, and Shepherd used a narrow passage across the back of Channel’s lot to reach that property. Later part of this lower Shepherd land was sold to John Biddis who erected the tavern on it that Pflieger bought in his later years. According to Roach, the present Highland Avenue runs through part of the Channel property. In 1750 the Slaughters sold their lot and furnishings to a John Bertholt who must have been a speculator because he only held it ten days. (I suspect he was a creditor of Slaughter’s.) He sold it to John Rudolph of Roxborough who held it for three years and then sold the property to George Sterner. In 1753 Sterner sold the property to Jacob Souder. In 1758 Pflieger bought the lot from Souder.

[xii] Roach, p. 9. There is no explanation for why the Germans’ called Shepherd “Schaeffer”.

[xiii] http://trentonhistory.org/His/landmarks.html (See reference to the tavern called The Indian King).

[xiv]See, Edelstein.

[xv] See, Edelstein.

[xvi] Roach, p. 20 descrbes the purchase of the Scull land from William Streeper and the transfer of land to Campbell, p. 20 describes the sale to Martin Erdman .

[xvii] Roach, p. 65 gives the date of death of Erdman and transfer of the land to his son Andrew Erdman.

[xviii] Roach, pp. 20-21 describes the Campbell purchase and presumed death of Campbell’s wife; pp. 28-29 describes the various Millberger transactions.

[xix] Roach, p. 20

[xx] Roach, p. 32.

[xxi] Roach, p. 35.

[xxii] Roach, p. 45 describes the transaction with Henry Cress and his longevity on Chestnut Hill.

[xxiii] See, Tunis, Edwin, Colonial Craftsmen and the Beginnings of American Industry. The Johns Hopkins University Press (June 17, 1999) for a description of the art of colonial hatmaking.See also, http://www.whiteoak.org/learning/furhat.htm

[xxiv] Roach, p. 44 describes the transfers of the Bachman land to Cress, and Biddis. The old Channel property between Cress and Biddis was now owned by Michael Berndollar who was also a skin dresser..

[xxv] Roach, p. 45, fn. 141 states that Elizabeth Millberger aged 41 was buried in St. Michael’s Lutheran Cemetery on February 9, 1775.

[xxvi] Roach, p. 45 describes the news of the Revolution reaching Chestnut Hill.

[xxvii] Roach, pp 47-48 describes the Militia Act; see fn. 149 regarding the composite roll of the company and the Pennsylvania archives.

[xxviii] Roach, pp. 48-49 describes the passage of the troops.

[xxix] Roach, p. 49; fn 154 gives citations for the work of the 5^th and 6^th classes.

[xxx] Roach, p. 49-50; The haymaking was the week of September 27.

[xxxi] Roach pp. 50-51 describe the further activity by the British; see fn. 158 regarding billeting at Henry Cress’s place.

[xxxii]Roach, pp. 51-53 describes Howe’s intrustion upon Chestnut Hill which Roach claims comes from Ancient and Modern Germantown, by Hotchkiss.

[xxxiii] Roach, p. 53 and p. 51 fn. 158 describe the damage claims.

[xxxiv] Roach, pp. 55-56 deals with the remainder of the war.

[xxxv] Scharf, John Thomas, History of Philadelphia 1609-1884, L.H. Evarts & Co. (Philadelphia, 1884) p. 2229.

[xxxvi]Roach, p. 59.

[xxxvii] Roach, p. 59. All of Conrad’s grandchildren recalled that he was a hatter.

[xxxviii] Davis, pp. 383-384.

[xxxix] Battle, A History of Bucks County p. 1082 contains the recollections of Grier Scheetz. He recollects that his great- grandfather Conrad came from Germany and was one of three brothers: Philip, Jacob and Conrad. Philip settled in Montgomery County, Jacob settled in Berks County and Conrad settled in Philadelphia. Grier’s father was Charles and his grandfather was George Scheetz. Grier’s uncles Samuel (p. 1062), Edwin (p. 1062)) and Albert (p. 872) merely recollects that Conrad came “at an early date from Germany” and settled in Philadelphia. Grier’s father, Charles, (p. 744) recollected that Conrad “came from Germany and settled in Philadelphia, whence he went to Germantown, but later returned to the former place, where he died.” Since Grier is the next generation it is not clear why he would know more than his father and his uncles but maybe he did. In any event, the Philadelphia Directory for 1811 (the year before Conrad died) shows Conrad Scheetz, hatter, at 415 North Front Street (p. 278).

[xl] Conrad and Christiana Scheetz would eventually have eleven children: George (December 12, 1785); Johannes Georg (August 21, 1786); Jacob (September 19, 1788); William (Wilhelm) (November 25, 1793); Elizabeth (November 28, 1795), Maria (April 15, 1798), Charles (Carolus) (March 15, 1800), Christina (December 14, (1801), Samuel (February 23, 1804), Sarah (no known date) and Christina Jacobina (August 20, 1806). See Records of St. Michael’s Evangelical Lutheran Church Germantown 1741-1841 Volume I compiled and edited by Frederick S. Weiser and Debra D. Smith GGRS, Picton Press, Rockport Maine 1998 and tombstone of George Scheetz. The Christina who was born in 1801 died April 10, 1804 per her tombstone in St. Michael’s churchyard. The information about Sarah and Samuel comes from Grier Scheetz’ biography in Battle’s A History of Bucks County. Grier says that Conrad had eight children: Sarah, Eliza and Mary; and Smauel, Jacob, William, Charles and George. Perhaps Sarah was really the last Christina that didn’t die. Samuel is a mystery but there is no Johannes listed in Grier’s memory.

[xli] Roach, pp. 59-60. Roach identifies Conrad as the son of Conrad Scheetz the papermaker but there is no documentary evidence of this. Roach does cite certain records in the Orphans books but this seems inconclusive. The Millbergers had sold their property in 1781 to Michael Friedly and in 1791 Friedly sold the property to George Consor who was married to Michael Millberger’s daughter Barbara. Six months later the Consors sold to Conrad Scheetz.

[xlii] Wills: Abstracts, Book 2 - Part A: 1806 - 1807: Philadelphia Co, PA

[xliii] I am not sure where the date 1812 came from, I'm still checking that out.

June 2025 Reading

The beginning of the month was a very slow book month for me. I just could not seem to get myself to focus on reading (probably because of <waves arms around>).  I finally gave up, went to some libraries and stocked up on some mysteries I'd been wanting to read.  That did the trick. I also continue on my year-long reading of Don Quixote. 

These are the books I finished in June. 

Precipice by Robert Harris

It is the summer of 1914 and Britain is in the middle of some significant "Irish troubles" and, unbeknownst to them, on the verge of World War I. The Prime Minister, H.H. Asquith, has a lot on his plate. To add to the stress in his life, he has become smitten with Venetia Stanley, a socialite less than half his age and a member of his son's group of friends. He writes to her at least once daily and takes her on long drives in the country every week. He frets if she doesn't respond to his letters immediately. These are the days when there were 12 mail deliveries every day in London - writing a letter was almost the equivalent of texting. As Britain slides slowly into war and as the war goes on the Prime Minister obsesses over his relationship with Venetia and begins to share more and more confidential information with her. This comes to the attention of Scotland Yard who assigns a young intelligence officer to look into things. Harris tells us that the intelligence officer is fictitious but Asquith and Venetia were real people and Venetia preserved all the letters he wrote to her (her letters were destroyed and Harris must create her side of the correspondence). This is the third Harris novel I've read and each of them has been totally different:  The Second Sleep had a seemingly medieval setting; Act of Oblivion involved two men who signed the death warrant for Charles I being pursued all the way to the New World by agents of Charles II; and now this novel is set amongst the high society of WWI London.  And I've enjoyed each of them.  I will warn that this novel sometimes gets into the weeds of WWI. This was not a problem for me as I love WWI fiction but some might find it a little too much. But the relationship between Asquith and Venetia does hold the attention. 

It's Easier Than You Think by Sylvia Boorstein

I listen to the "Currently Reading Podcast" each week and two different hosts recommended this book at different times. Both of them read it after going through personal losses. I didn't realize before I picked it up that it was basically a beginner Buddhism book. That was ok because, even though I'm not a Buddhist, it had a lot of good insights into putting your life in perspective. It is written in very simple terms with examples. I don't think I would rave about it like both of them did (I think one of them put it on the list of best books she read last year) but I'm also not in the middle of a personal crisis either. I did like it and am not sorry I read it. 

Detective Aunty by Uzma Jalaluddin

Kauser Khan is a recent widow who hasn't visited her old hometown, Toronto, in the 20 years since her son died. Her daughter and grandchildren have had to travel to visit her ever since. But now her daughter is suspected of murder and needs her. Part of this story is Mrs. Khan being able to face her old self and her old neighborhood in Toronto and part is her solving the mystery. I suspect this is the first in a series since, although the mystery is solved (and I didn't guess until the end), there are still unexplained loose threads. Jalaluddin is, apparently, an established writer of romance novels and this is her first cozy mystery. She did a good job establishing the characters and, as I said, I didn't automatically guess who dunnit. It's also always nice to see an older woman as the main character. 

A Decline in Prophets by Sulari Gentill
Miles Off Course by Sulari Gentill
Paving the New Road by Sulari Gentill

These are books #2, 3 and 4 in the Rowland Sinclair Mystery Series that I started a few months ago. My libraries only had the first book in digital form so I had to track down hard copies of some of the next in the series and when I found them I picked up books 2-6.  In A Decline in Prophets Rowland and his friends are on their way back to Australia from Europe via New York, on an ocean liner in the early 1930's.  Murders ensue. I'm always fascinated by ocean liner travel back in the days when it took weeks if not months to travel across oceans and this certainly had a sense of place.  Miles Off Course takes place in a more remote part of Australia where Rowland and friends are searching for a missing person. Paving the New Road takes the group to Germany in the 1930's. I liked this one the least, partly because I easily guessed who the bad guy was (and easily guessed who their woman friend was) but mostly because it made me sick to my stomach to see how similar are the times we are living in.  Again, Gentill is wonderful at giving a very specific sense of place. Books 2 and 3 were good mysteries; although I had suspicions about many characters it wasn't until the end that I honed in on the murderers. I will look forward to getting to know the characters even better as the series progresses. I still have the next 2 library books that I need to read before they are due.  

The Dying Day by Vaseem Khan
The Lost Man by Vaseem Khan

Back in February I read Midnight at the Malabar House by Vaseem Khan which I described as Slow Horses but in Post-War Bombay. The main character, Persis Wadia, is the first female police officer on the force but since they didn't know what to do with a female police officer they assigned her to Malabar House. While browsing books at the library I found the next two books in this series and immediately snatched them up.  The Dying Day involves the theft of a rare copy of Dante's Divine Comedy; The Lost Man involves solving the identity of a body discovered in the Himalayas. Both books involve Persis navigating the sexism of the Bombay police force. I really like this series, it has well-drawn characters and a good sense of place and the mysteries are set up very well. I didn't immediately guess whodunnit in either book. Unfortunately my libraries don't have any of the remaining books in the series so I may have to actually purchase them if I want to continue the series. 

The Case of the Missing Maid by Rob Osler

This is a brand new mystery novel that is clearly meant to be the first in a series. It is 1898 in Chicago and Harriet Morrow has just been hired (on a probationary basis) as an investigator at a detective agency. They have never had a woman detective before and Harriet must navigate many hurdles. For her first case she is sent to investigate a missing maid at the home of her boss's neighbor. He thinks it will amount to nothing but it becomes very complicated. The blurb describes Harriet as a "bike-riding, trousers wearing lesbian" which is accurate but a bit reductive. Harriet is a complicated person.  I liked this novel and will definitely read more.  Harriet is an interesting character and Osler created a variety of interesting side characters. Osler also used Chicago as a great backdrop, creating a good sense of place. If you are at all familiar with Chicago you will enjoy seeing the various neighborhoods at the turn of the last century. (Part of the plot takes place in my sister's old neighborhood back in the day when the entire population was Polish.)  And I didn't guess whodunnit.  In many ways this reminded me of Amy Stewart's Miss Kopp series although it takes place in a different city and in a slightly earlier time. 

A Long Way From Home by Peter Carey

This seemed to be my month to read novels set in Australia.  This 2018 novel by Peter Carey takes us on a 1950's car race around the entire continent of Australia and we see it principally through the eyes of Irene Bobs, a woman who loves to drive. Her husband is a good car salesman and wants a licensed car dealership.  Irene hopes winning the race will be the kind of publicity they need to make a successful dealership.  As their navigator they take on their next-door neighbor, former quiz show champion Willie Bachhuber. Things become interesting for all of them as they head out of white Australia into the outback.  Carey wants to show us, through a humorous story, the clash between white culture and the ancient aboriginal culture. I liked the idea of this novel and I liked the character of Irene but it disappointed me as far as a sense of place went. I never really had a "feel" for most of the landscapes because Carey was so focused on the driving.  Late in the novel it takes an unexpected turn and I thought it was interesting but really slowed down the narrative. 

Come From Away - The Muny 2025

On the north-east tip of North America, 

On an island called Newfoundland,

There's an airport.

It used to be one of the

biggest airports in the world.

And next to it is a town called Gander.

I admit to a bit of apprehension before I arrived at The Muny last night. Come From Away is one of my favorite shows but it is a small show and The Muny is a big stage (not to mention the 11,000 seat audience). But I reminded myself that long ago I saw Carol Burnett and Rock Hudson in I Do I Do, a two person show, at The Muny and it was great. I needn't have worried, artistic director Mike Isaacson always seems to know what he is doing at The Muny. 

On September 11, 2001, after the attacks on New York and the Pentagon, the airspace of the United States was shut down and all incoming planes were diverted. 38 jumbo jets landed at the airport in Gander, Newfoundland carrying 7,000 passengers which was more than the population of the town itself. Gander could handle all of the incoming flights because the airport had been built in the days when planes could not make it across the Atlantic without a refueling stop. Gander's airport was the final re-fueling stop on the trip. As the characters point out, EVERYONE used to stop in Gander - the Beatles, Fidel Castro, the Queen. With the advent of the newer jets the stops were unnecessary but the big airport remained. 

The town of Gander itself did not, however, have facilities for 7,000 guests and so the people of Gander and the nearby towns banded together to take in the "plane people". They housed, fed and comforted 7,000 people until the airspace was re-opened a few days later.  

All of the characters in the musical are based on real people and each actor plays multiple parts, switching accents and costumes as needed. Heidi Blickenstaff, a Broadway veteran, made an excellent Muny debut playing the dual roles of Beverly, the captain of an American Airlines jet, as well as a teacher at the local academy that houses many of the plane people. Local talent Zoe Vonder Haar played Beulah, the head of the school, as well as a number of minor roles. Ashley Brown and John Bolton principally played Diane and Nick, two plane people who meet and are attracted to each other, but both also played other small roles. Abigail Isom was Janice, the TV reporter who was new to her job. Trey DeLuna and Jason Tam played the two Kevins, a gay couple whose relationship is challenged by the circumstances. DeLuna also played Ali, the Egyptian man who is among the passengers (he looked familiar to me and I later realized he had played the same roles in the national tour that I saw last year). Alan Green was Bob, the man from New York who suffered from anxiety. Finally, Adam Heller played Claude the mayor of Gander as well as others including the Mayor of Appleton. There wasn't a weak link in the entire cast. 

The original Broadway production utilized a rotating stage to show scene changes on a minimalist set. The touring company, knowing that many theaters don't have rotating stages, re-choreographed it so that scene changes were done solely through movement of the characters. The Muny combined those approaches. There is a rotating stage (a quite large one) and it was utilized but not in the same way as the Broadway production. Scenic designer Edward E. Haynes, Jr. and director Seth Sklar-Heyn designed a large but simple set on the rotating stage. When viewed from the front there are a series of rising levels with the minimalist chairs and tables that can be moved around to show different scenes. When the stage rotates the back is a sheer drop that can be used as a backdrop for other scenes or that the characters can look out from. 

I thought it worked reasonably well at filling the big Muny stage. I think it would have worked better if the lighting design had managed to have the spots always pick up the characters as they sang, Diane is a big role but often it seemed that her character was in the back (albeit higher on the risers) and it was hard to pick her out when she was singing. 

The production was enhanced by the use of projections on the huge rear wall what appeared to be real archival footage from Gander from those days. All in all, while I like the original design and choreography better, I thought the design worked and I enjoyed the production. 

The story of the kindness of the people of Gander to the plane people is heart warming without being maudlin. It is good to be reminded of how lucky we are to have good Canadian neighbors. 

On a personal level, I used to work with a man who was on one of the flights diverted to Gander. He and his wife were returning from Europe when they were diverted. I remember him telling me about this in 2008 and saying that they still kept in touch with their Gander hosts. 

We lucked out in terms of weather. The Muny is an outdoor theater and patrons are subject to the whims of the weather gods. The threatened thunderstorms did not materialize, the horrible humidity we have been having for the last week dropped enough to be bearable and there were occasional breezes to cool us off. 

Come From Away plays through July 2 and if you can get there I recommend it.