Editor’s Note: May and Mystery
From the desk of editor, Mike Cote
I can’t think of a better way to make a buck than to get paid to read stories.
Our team of editors at New Hampshire Magazine certainly do more than that as we work with writers and photographers to produce the articles that appear on these pages.
That said, we get to spend time with talented storytellers who do such a great job spinning a tale that we might forget for a bit that we’re supposed to be editing because we’ve gotten completely absorbed in the narrative.
Frequent contributor J. Dennis Robinson always delivers that kind of experience. The Portsmouth author, who has written more than 20 books, has a fresh approach to writing about history that challenges our preconceived notions about the past and blasts cannonball-sized holes through falsehoods long accepted as fact.
When someone says, “and the rest was history,” trust Robinson to take a closer look and uncover the truth, served up with authority and sharp wit.
Robinson’s voice is well-suited to crafting historical fiction. In “Lucy’s Voice,” the newly released second entry in his “New England History Mystery” series, Robinson weaves a contemporary story about a maverick Portsmouth newspaper reporter around a mystery connected to the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln.
Reporter Claire Caswell, her husband, Corey, and their friend Levi Woodbury investigate a possible secret diary kept by New Hampshire socialite Lucy Lambert Hale and what it might contain about her one-time fiancé, John Wilkes Booth, the man who shot Lincoln.
Hale was the daughter of New Hampshire Sen. John Parker Hale, who helped found the anti-slavery Free Soil Party in 1848 and later served as minister of Spain under Lincoln. (A statue of Sen. Hale stands in front of the State House in Concord.)
While the story of Lucy Hale and her scandalous relationship with Booth is fascinating, the novel’s greatest strength lies with the story’s protagonists and their personal struggles. Robinson makes you care enough about these characters so that their pursuit of the truth and what they ultimately uncover never feels like a history lesson.
“Lucy’s Voice” is the May selection for the Music Hall Book Club in Portsmouth. (For more of Robinson’s live author events, visit jdennisrobinson.com.)
For this issue, Robinson wrote “Digging the Isle of Shoals,” an article that was adapted from his book, “Under the Isles of Shoals: Archaeology & Discovery on Smuttynose Island.”
“Two legends have haunted the Isles of Shoals since colonial days,” Robinson begins.
Find out about them on page 44.
Best Places in NH
Our annual “Best Places” feature (page 58) has a fresh, new look thanks to artist Peter Noonan, whose illustrations anchor the “Our Town” series, and New Hampshire Magazine’s art director, John Goodwin, whose redesign tweaks can be found throughout the magazine.
For this year’s “Best Places,” our quartet of editors Emily Heidt, Elisa Gonzales Verdi, Emily Reily and yours truly present a statewide look at fun places to dine, explore, recreate and shop. It’s a great time to explore New Hampshire during that shoulder season between winter and summer, when Granite Staters can enjoy all the wonder our great state has to offer before the crowds arrive. Enjoy it now!
