"The Sea Captain's Wife" by Tilar J. Mazzeo (2025)

 Before Women's Lib there was Mary Ann Patten, the 16 year old wife of Captain Joshua Patten, both of Maine. She was a product of her time and place, schooled in the art of homemaking and someday becoming the wife of a Sea Captain. When they met he was several years her senior, which was not unusual for the times. But what was unusual was the woman she would become, and the role she would play in her husband's life.

This is a book which will have you cheering at times as you learn of her accomplishments and trials. Joshua was the Captain of the last generation of Clipper ships, known as "Extreme" clippers, designed for speed and revenue. They could transport goods from Maine to Liverpool in as little as 13 days, or down around the Cape of South America through Drake's Passage and on to San Francisco in 100 days. These ships could make you rich. Or they could leave you broken and stranded on a foreign shore.

Mary Ann and Joshua had a plan. They would Captain his ship, " Neptune's  Boxcar", and circumnavigate it around the world, from Maine to New York,on to San Francisco, then China and India and back again. If they were sucessful they could retire by age 30 with a farm and the means to live well for the rest of their lives.

But Mary Ann and Joshua were so in love that they would not be parted, and though it was not unusual for a Captain to take his wife with him on a perilous voyage; where convention would see the women confined to the Captain's quarters for much of the voyage; what was unusual was the timber of this particular woman.

Mary Ann had only a rudimentary education, but at age 17, in an age and world dominated by men,  she would teach herself the mathematics necessary to navigate by the stars, read the Nautical Charts, determine ocean currents and everything else necessary to not only assist Joshua, but to take his place when their fortunes turned. And this is the meat of the story, as well as the measure of the woman.

In their planned 2 year voyage she would become the first woman, at age 19 and pregnant, to Captain their ship when Joshua took deathly ill with Tuberculosis and "Brain Fever", brave the perilous voyage around the Horn and through Drake's Passage, nurse her dying husband, put down a Mutiny and bring her man home. It is an extraordinary tale; and true.

Written by Tilar J. Mazzeo; another ten decade native of the area in Maine, as well as an accomplished Mariner and author in her own right; this book will inspire and then anger you when Mary Ann, 8 months pregnant, and suffering from Malaria, is cheated out of her husband's wages on a technicality. As a woman she had no right to accomplish what she had. The ship's owner's took the position that because Joshua had been ill for most of the voyage, he had done little of the work he had been contracted to do. And since there was no contract with Mary Ann, they were owed nothing.

The story of how this 19 year old woman who taught herself to navigate, was able to bring her husband home, have her child and survive is compelling. It is also an infuriating one. Why are there no statues, or Commemorative Coins to honor this woman? And why is there still no Equal Rights Amendment for Women? This book is food for that thought.

"The First Conspiracy" by Brad Meltzer with John Mensch (2018)

 

This is Brad Meltzer's first stab at non-fiction, and with the aid of co-author John Mensch, they have penned a truly riveting account of this overlooked chapter of the American Revolution. 

Long before Lincoln, Pinkerton and the Secret Service there was a group of soldiers assigned to guard General Washington 24 hours a day. They were literally called by the name "The Life Guards." They were armed, and stood close to the General wherever he was. Into every room he went, these men went with him. 

New York City, where the action in this book takes place, was a hotbed of espionage, skullduggery and counterfeiting during the Revolution. Governor Tryon, a Loyalist to the Crown, was forced to live aboard a British ship where no one could get to him. The Mayor, a noted Tory himself, was likewise in seclusion. But they were not idle.

Among the plots and sabotage emanating from Manhattan, were a band of counterfeiters from Long Island. They play a large part in this highly readable, well written book. Only out of their bungling does there emerge that there is a plot amongst a group of men who are members of Washington's own "Life Guards" to kidnap, and or kill, the General. The authors of this plot?  None other than the Governor and the Mayor!

This is a highly charged book which takes place on the eve of the Battle for New York City in June of 1776. The outcome is never in doubt. We won the war and Washington became President. The real story in this book is the beginning of espionage and counter espionage in America. It is a history that is still evolving over 200 years later, only now it continues en masse, and on a world wide stage and scale.
 

"The Mark Inside" by Amy Reading (2012)

I used to keep an FBI Wanted Poster tacked to the wall of whatever office I worked in. Eventually, someone would always ask me who it was. I would always answer, “That’s so and so, and he owes me $10 bucks! Have you seen him?” As the man on the poster was usually a cold blooded killer, the reaction was usually predictable; something along the lines of, “Are you kidding?” In this fascinating book, Amy Reading gives the account of a man who wasn’t.

J. Frank Norfleet was a self-made man. He made his fortune as a rancher in the late 19^th, and early 20^th, centuries. In 1919 he went to Dallas on business. There he met Big Joe Furey, the most notorious “confidence man” in the country at the time. He traveled across the nation, coast to coast, with his cohorts, as they swindled every mark they encountered. That is, until they made the mistake of running their scam on Frank Norfleet.

From Benjamin Franklin, to P.T. Barnum, America has always had an odd relationship with those who bedazzle us. The promise of great reward for little, or no effort, is hard for any man to resist. We are, at times, simply put, a nation of “suckers.”

When Norfleet realizes that he has been swindled he goes home to his ranch, confessing his losses to his wife. Shortly before Christmas 1919, Norfleet, sitting with his wife in their kitchen, makes the decision to track down, and bring to justice, the men who robbed him of both his money, and dignity. This was no small undertaking in 1919. Even with cross country railroads, and telegraphs; as well as phones; things were not as fast paced as they are today. And that’s what makes Norfleet’s story so remarkable.

With a deft hand, the author takes you on a journey across America; not only in the Norfleet case and its subsequent trials; but also into the history of the Con Artist in America. Crisply written, and filled with a history apart from the main event, serve to make this book the perfect read for these hot summer days. The richness with which Ms. Reading has captured the personalities of the players in this story is truly rewarding.

When  the Literary World commented, in its review of the play "The Confidence Man" in 1849 that, “It is a good thing, and speaks well for human nature that, at this late day, in spite of all the hardening of civilization, and all the warnings of newspapers, men can be swindled,” Ms. Reading believes, as I do, that this shows we still retain a capacity for trust. And ill-advised as that may seem at times, it is, no doubt, a good thing. This is a very well written book, which gives the reader a closer insight into the history of the “con” in America, as well as the amazing story of J. Frank Norfleet, the man who, unlike myself, wasn’t kidding.

"America at Night" by Larry J. Kolb

This is a very interesting, and disturbing book. It confirms all that most of us already know about our government. It is way out of control. It has been reduced to a series of organizations that do nothing but fight over their allotted share of tax dollars, and then in turn, these same organizations, after stealing from you and I, go on to lie, cheat and steal from one another to accumulate even more power for themselves. They then suck in even more money from private, business and banking sources, thus cementing their own interests in place.

If Larry Kolb is to be believed, and I see no reason to doubt his story, then your tax money was used as "seed" to institute a vast scheme to cheat John Kerry of victory in the 2004 Presidential Election. This scheme was organized by the same team that brought you the "October Surprise" in 1980,the result of which was that the hostages at our Embassy in Tehran were held for an extra 4 months, on the eve of their diplomatically arranged release. This ensured that Presidential Nominee Ronald Reagan would defeat President Carter in that year's election, and underscores my point that our government is way out of control, and has been for some time. For their co-operation Iran received millions in arms and military hardware to fight the Iraqi's. This was the spark that would later cause Saadam Hussein to invade Kuwait.

Back to the election of 2004 and John Kerry;

With very detailed notes and a skillful sense of writing, Mr. Kolb takes us through the paces concerning one Robert Sensi and his partner Robert Mitchell. Along the way we encounter Muhammad Ali, the Bush family, and a slew of International business men with far reaching and vastly different connections who all have one thing in common, the desire to see Predident Bush re-elected. Together they concoct a scheme to smear Senator John Kerry. The fact that this scheme was unnecessary, and that Kerry lost of his own accord, makes the whole thing seem even more ridiculous. It smacks of the same thinking that went into the Watergate Burglary at the DNC in Washington. A crime was committed and the real motives were obscured. There never was a need to burglarize the DNC for information, Nixon was a sure thing that year.

Mr. Kolb, a former CIA operative, who blew his own cover with his last book, "Overworld", tells, in this carefully written narrative, of his first realization that something was not quite right concerning an individual named Robert Sensi, former Chairman of a now defunct business organization. With his first book just completed the last thing he wants to do is to become involved in another CIA project. But as he lays out the files and pieces it all together he unravels one of the most far reaching, and ultimately useless plans ever devised to sway an election.

The plan was simple enough on it's face; just link Kerry to contributions from an organization that has business ties with Iran and Afghanistan. But when Mr. Kolb recognizes that certain names and individual corporations are involved in a scheme to throw the election, he acts to thwart that plan.

This is a very engaging book and a good read, maybe too good. What I mean by that is, once you start to see conspiracies in one place, you start to see them everywhere. So my question would be this; while this story was going on, what was happening that really mattered?