BACK BAY

by William Martin ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 1, 1979

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 somehow, 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 Fallen 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. Fallen 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 its narrow escapes and stop-watch acton, including a subway-tunnel dig and shoot-out. Rather gory, very farfetched treasure-hunt fun and mayhem--a bracing brew for long cold nights.

Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1979

ISBN: 0446363162

Page Count: -

Publisher: Crown

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1979

Categories: FICTION