Back Bay

Martin's first novel is a clever and entertainaing blend of history, family, saga, and mystery. Its focus is on a magnificent gold and silver tea set that, made by Paul Revere and presented to George Washington by the merchants of Boston, becomes a key factor in the destinies of a prosperous Boston family, the Pratts, for 250 years. The set is stolen from the White House in 1814 by Horace Pratt in revege for governmet trade restrictions, and buried in the mud of the Back Bay. Later that part of the bay is landfilled, and the set's whereabouts become a mystery, solvable only by someone who can decipher certain clues in a Pratt diary. Shuttling between past and present, the narative detailsthe attempts of generations of pPRatts, and others, to retrieve the treasure, and encompasses a while string of violent deeds, including suiccide and murder. Matters reach an exciting though tragic climax in the1970s when twogroups opf serachers find the sert almost simultaneously.

Don't be fooled by the title: this mystery/adventure is no Beacon Hill tea party but a Southie-style rouser starring several generations of Yankee tycoons - the crafty Pratts - and their immigrant descended allies and enemies. The first American Pratt is Boston merchant Horace, who, disapproving of President Madison's trade policies in 1814, decides to fence a magnificent treasure, "The Golden Eagle Tea Set" - 31 pieces of flawless silver created by Paul Revere and presented to the White House in perpetuity by Washington. But somewhere, amid the British invasion chaos, the tea set goes astray - on a wild sea journey to a bizarre grave where it will stay until the 20th century. So it's up to present-day history grad student Peter Fallon and Evangeline Carrington, a Pratt descendant, to put together the Pratt family secrets and get to the tea set before it's found by various deadly Bad Guys - including a Pratt-gone-to-seed and a powerful local bully-boy planning to take over the Pratt industrial empire. Fallon and Evangeline, on the run a good deal of the time, work with some classy clues to the Tea Set's location: there are verses from Milton's Paradise Lost, for example, scattered far and wide - one discovered in the belongings of a west coast call girl (who's murdered) , another on a church altar chalice. And the Tale of the Tea Set flips back and forth neatly between the centuries, grisly with Set-linked drownings and murders, spiced with some old scandals. Martin has carefully researched the topography of old Boston and tidily balances his inventive plot with narrow escapes and stopwatch action, including a subway tunnel dig and shootout. Rather gory, very farfetched treasure-hunt fun and mayhem - a bracing brew for long cold nights.

"A rip-roaring page turner. A perfect read!"