I love finding a great new author

It’s always great to discover a new author that you like, especially if they’ve already written more than one book. That’s what happened to me when Miriam Nesset sent me two of her novels and one children’s book. Miriam is from Wisconsin but now lives in Georgetown, Maine.

I dived into her book, Murder in Between, and was hooked on the very first page. This story is about murder and mayhem in a very small remote town, where a bank president dominates everything and everybody in the town.

That fellow decides he wants the farm that a couple and their five children own, and he does a lot of horrible things to them to try to get them to sell him their farm. His sons are the ones who do most of the dirty work, from driving their trucks all over the farm fields and destroying the crops, to killing the livestock and even the family’s dog.

I don’t want to give away the plot, but I can tell you you’re going to like the ending.

Her other novel, Sea Smoke, starts out with a treacherous voyage by a sailing ship traveling from Europe to the United States. From the many details of that voyage, I assume Miriam has either done a lot of sailing herself or she did a lot of research. You will feel like you’re right on board that ship (just be careful that you are not one of those swept overboard!).

Eventually the ship crashes on the rocks off of a Maine island, and quite a few of the sailors are killed. The survivors stay in Maine and one particular fellow and his girlfriend – later wife – build a cabin on a very remote Maine island and live there year-round all by themselves. The man does have to leave the island every year to work in the Maine woods, leaving his wife alone for several months.

Every Mainer will find their life on that remote island to be very interesting, especially if you have visited some of our remote islands.

Miriam’s children’s book, Aristotle for Henry, is one the kids will love. Throughout the book there are colorful pages where the kids are challenged to find things from hands and eyes to circles and stars.

Yes, this is a very hands-on book, and includes important messages for children including the fact that music, art, and books help us to be happy.

And that is absolutely true!

George Smith

About George Smith

George stepped down at the end of 2010 after 18 years as the executive director of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine to write full time. He writes a weekly editorial page column in the Kennebec Journal and Waterville Morning Sentinel, a weekly travel column in those same newspapers (with his wife Linda), monthly columns in The Maine Sportsman magazine, two outdoor news blogs (one on his website, georgesmithmaine.com, and one on the website of the Bangor Daily News), and special columns for many publications and newsletters. Islandport Press published a book of George's favorite columns, "A Life Lived Outdoors" in 2014. In 2014, George also won a Maine Press Association award for writing the state's bet sports blog. In 2016, Down East Books published George's book, Maine Sporting Camps, and Islandport Press published George and his wife Linda's travel book, Take It From ME, about their favorite Maine inns and restaurants.