“Mesmerizing. Slowly, subtly, the story twists on itself like a pinned snake. . . Not since Kenneth Roberts has anyone written of early New England life in such vivid and convincing detail. . . .A gifted writer with an extraordinary feeling for the past.” --Annie Proulx, The New York Times Book Review

“Stereotypes we learned in grade school simply don’t exist here; instead, there are passionate, complex characters, including unexpectedly strong and often rebellious women.” --The Denver Post

“Begiebing illuminates the dark and wonderful intricacy of the human heart.” --Yankee Magazine

“This is no ordinary mystery. Just imagine Peyton Place as Hawthorne would have written it.”--Booklist

“A great achievement of imagination and research.”--Boston Magazine

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Originally published the early 1990s, The Strange Death of Mistress Coffin was widely and enthusiastically reviewed, was a Main Selection in The Literary Guild, The Mystery Guild, and Doubleday Book Clubs, and is currently optioned for a film.  “When Mistress Coffin recently became purchasable from Algonquin Books,” Begiebing says, “UPNE saw an opportunity to make the complete New England trilogy spanning 1648-1850 available from one publishing house. I’m very thankful to UPNE for their faith in this novel.” Mistress Coffin was the first installment of the trilogy that includes Rebecca Wentworth’s Distraction and The Adventures of Allegra Fullerton, also available from UPNE in both e-book and hard copy formats.

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Robert J. Begiebing is the author of seven books, a play, and over thirty articles and stories.   His novel Rebecca Wentworth’s Distraction won the Langum Prize for historical fiction. His fiction writing has been supported by grants from the Lila-Wallace Foundation and the New Hampshire Council for the Arts.  In 2007, Governor John Lynch appointed Begiebing to the Council for the Arts.  In 2009 he served both as one of the inaugural faculty members at the Norman Mailer Writers’ Colony and as finalist judge for the Langum Prize.  He is the founding director of the Low-Residency MFA in Fiction and Nonfiction, and Professor of English Emeritus, at Southern NH University. His book, The Turner Erotica, based on the life and work of painter J.M.W. Turner, will be published next spring. Learn more at www.begiebing.com.

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This event is co-sponsored by the Exeter Historical Society. For over 80 years the Exeter Historical Society has been collecting artifacts from Exeter’s past ... and its present. Their collections illustrate the town’s rich and fascinating history, its residents, and ultimately its place in the larger history of both the state and the nation. A non-profit organization, the Exeter Historical Society offers regular programs of local historical interest and is a repository for documents, maps, photos, artifacts, and other ephemera pertaining to Exeter, New Hampshire. They maintain a research library, act as a resource for genealogical research, co-sponsor historical events and publications, create exhibits hoping to encourage historic preservation, and document today’s events as the history of tomorrow.

 

A portion of the proceeds from book sales will be donated to the Historical Society.