I’m delighted to welcome Jennifer M. Lane and her new book, Downriver from The Poison River Series, to the blog with a guest post.
Guest Post
On the surface, Downriver, the first book in the Poison River series, is an extension of my lifelong interest in coming-of-age tales, where men and women unlock a part of themselves that allows them to move into a new phase of life. Though I believe we can “come of age” at many points, Charlotte and her friends are teenagers at the start of the series, fighting a battle much more formidable than their years.
The story is fictional, but the places are real, and the foundation on which the plot sits is based in the history of Pennsylvania’s anthracite coal country.
The world Charlotte and her brother, Emmett, come from is tainted by the conflict between coal bosses and mine workers. It’s a history of rich versus poor, of immigrants with fewer protections being abused by a coordinated system of oppression.
Mine workers in this region in the nineteenth century were largely Irish immigrants, many of whom fled the potato famine and the corporatization of their food supply. As they fought back in Ireland and England, emigrees formed a group known as the Molly Maguires, coordinating increasingly violent uprisings against farmers who locked them out of land they once farmed and merchants who raised the rates on foods.
In the United States, as Irish workers settled in anthracite country and took on mine work, they soon found themselves financially shackled to their new employer. Housing was taken from their pay along with fees for the town doctor. Their remaining income was paid in scrips—company coin that could only be spent in the overpriced company store. Their income rarely exceeded their bills. And the more they pushed for better conditions, the more the coal bosses fought back. Eventually, things turned violent.
No paper trail links the 1860s and 1870s violence and murders of coal bosses to a coordinated Molly Maguires group, but once slung, the moniker stuck. As the chasm between the miners and coal bosses widened, Frank Gowen convinced the State of Pennsylvania to allow the coal patch towns to hire their own private police force to combat the Mollies. The Coal and Iron Police was formed, then returned the miner’s fire.
This is the world of my fictional Frank Morris, Charlotte and Emmett’s father. The fictional man was a more public figure than the man who inspired him. Frank Morris wrote speeches that sparked an uprising before losing his life to poisoning. The real Jack Kehoe was hanged, accused of working quietly, leading a group of men who used violence and murder to punish coal bosses and intimidate their opposition.
In retaliation, Frank Gowen hired a Philadelphia detective (Allan Pinkerton) to plant a spy within his worker’s ranks. That spy found himself regretfully entangled in violence he was accused of instigating before testifying against the miners in a case that was prosecuted by Gowen himself. The gross miscarriage of justice is considered one of the bleakest eras of the American justice system.
Readers will encounter more of this rich history in subsequent books in the series. Set a mere quarter century after twenty men were sentenced to hang for their role as Molly Maguires, Downriver draws largely on these political and worker tensions as background. The battle Charlotte and her friends wage is against a pollution that poisons the air and the water, sickening people in her hometown of Stoke and poisoning the fish in the Maryland foster village on the Chesapeake Bay.
As she battles her father’s coal boss from afar, Charlotte teams up with suffragists, her high school literary society, and a handsome young man who lost family to the poison, too.
Though the era of the American Revolution is my favorite, writing Downriver has given me a chance to merge the historical settings of my Chesapeake Bay hometown and my partner’s in the Poconos outside Eckley Miner’s Village. Visitors to their museum can enjoy the history and structures such as houses and the coal breaker that was constructed for the 1970s film The Molly Maguires.
Blurb
A sulfur sky poisoned her family and her heart. Now revenge tastes sweeter than justice.
It’s 1900. In a Pennsylvania coal town tainted by corruption and pollution, Charlotte’s world collapses when her parents meet a tragic end. Sent to a foster family in a Maryland fishing village, she’s fueled by grief and embarks on a relentless quest for justice against the ruthless coal boss, Nels Pritchard.
But Charlotte is no ordinary girl. She shares the fiery spirit of her father, whose powerful speeches inspired worker riots. With a burning desire for vengeance, she sets out to uncover the truth behind Pritchard’s crimes, unearthing a shocking connection between the town’s toxic air and the lifeless fish washing up on the shore of her Chesapeake Bay foster town.
To expose the truth, Charlotte builds a network of unexpected allies. There are gutsy suffragists, a literary society of teenage girls willing to print the truth… and Weylan. The captivating young man lost his own family to Pritchard’s poison. He offers support, but Charlotte questions his true motives when he lures her to break the law. Could she be falling into a dangerous trap, leading her to a fate worse than poison?
With her unwavering spirit and determination, Charlotte must forge alliances and navigate a web of treachery before Pritchard seeks his own ruthless revenge.
The newest book by award-winning author Jennifer M. Lane is perfect for fans of Jeannette Walls’ Hang the Moon and the fiery protagonist in The Hunger Games. Join Charlotte in this small town, coming-of-age dystopian historical saga as she finds resilience, courage, and triumph in her search for identity, independence, and her true home.
Buy Links
This title is available to read on #KindleUnlimited
Meet the Author
A Maryland native and Pennsylvanian at heart, Jennifer M. Lane holds a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Barton College and a master’s in liberal arts with a focus on museum studies from the University of Delaware, where she wrote her thesis on the material culture of roadside memorials.
Jennifer is a member of the Authors Guild and the Historical Novel Society. Her first book, Of Metal and Earth, won the 2019 Next Generation Indie Book Award for First Novel and was a Finalist in the 2018 IAN Book of the Year Awards in the category of Literary / General Fiction. She is also the author of Stick Figures from Rockport, and the six book series, The Collected Stories of Ramsbolt.
Connect with the Author
MJ Porter 