pril 10, 1919.
The war in Europe, the Great War, the War to End
All Wars, is over—America and her allies have
defeated the German forces. The USS Mongolia arrives in
Boston carrying over 5,000 soldiers and sailors
returning from France. Thousands are gathered on
Commonwealth Pier to welcome the returning
doughboys, dancing, waving flags, singing, and
celebrating the safe return of their loved ones.
But
war changes things. It changes nations, and it
changes people, both those who fought and those
who waited anxiously back home. One soldier among
the thousands arriving in Boston on this day is
not joining in the celebrations. He is a young man
from Holyoke, Massachusetts. He enlisted out of a
sense of duty to his nation, little knowing the
pain, the hurt he would suffer. His wounds are not
those of gunshots or mustard gas or influenza,
they are wounds of the heart and the soul, and
they are deep.
In
Darkest Before Dawn, Book 4 of
the Trolley Days Series, Massachusetts author
Robert
T. McMaster traces the lives of four young people
growing up in a time of turmoil and wrenching
change for their country, their hometown, and
themselves.
Darkest Before Dawn
by Robert T. McMaster
Unquomonk Press, 2022
332
pages, 50 illustrations
ISBN 9798428349832
THE TROLLEY
DAYS BOOK SERIES

The nineteen-teens was a
tumultuous era in American history. The pace of
social change was dizzying: the rising tide of
worker unrest, the battle for women's suffrage,
the scourge of discrimination against
minorities. New technologies—electricity,
the telephone, the automobile–were transforming
life. Meanwhile the war raging in Europe was
drawing America inexorably into its vortex.
Author Robert T. McMaster transports his
readers back in time to early 20th century
America in the Trolley Days Series of historical
novels. Set in a bustling New England industrial
city, these books follow the lives of teenagers
Jack Bernard and Tom Wellington through good
times and bad, hope and despair, love and loss.
Readers young and old will be captivated by the
world of their grandparents and
great-grandparents, an era seemingly remote that
nonetheless speaks to us across the generations.
Trolley Days, The Dyeing Room, Noah’s
Raven, and Darkest Before Dawn are
currently available in paperback and in several
eBook formats.
Trolley
Days is the story of an unlikely friendship
between two boys growing up in Holyoke,
Massachusetts, in the nineteen-teens. Jack Bernard
is the son of a mill worker who emigrated from
Canada, Tom Wellington the son of the mill owner.
Jack is shy and socially a bit awkward, Tom
self-assured and smooth-talking. But for all their
differences, the two boys have much in common.
They love fishing, sports, and all manner of
youthful tomfoolery. Each has suffered the loss of
a sibling, tragedies that have affected both
families deeply.
In the opening chapter a
blizzard is approaching as Jack boards a train
for the long trip to Boston. He has received a
cryptic letter informing him that Tom is in a
Boston jail. Despite a recent falling-out
between the two, Jack still considers Tom his
best friend, and he refuses to allow a snowstorm
to prevent him from going to Tom’s aid. Soon
Jack will be plunged into a mystery that calls
on all his courage and determination to solve,
even as his friend’s life hangs in the balance.
To save his friend, Jack will need the
assistance of Tom’s sister, Anne, but that will
require Jack and Anne to reconcile their
fractured relationship.
Does
friendship have its limits? Can bonds of trust,
once broken, be repaired? Can we learn from
life’s tragedies and move on, or must we carry
them like lead weights on our hearts forever? In
Trolley Days it seems it is the young who
bear the heaviest of life’s burdens and must
marshal the strength to free themselves and
their parents.
Spring -
1917. War is raging in Europe and America has
just cast its lot against the German war
machine. Back home, the nation is reeling with
social strife: workers marching for their
rights, immigrants demanding fair treatment,
suffragettes clamoring for the vote. In Holyoke,
Massachusetts, seventeen-year-old Jack Bernard
has a new job at one of the city’s largest
textile mills, hoping to save money for college.
Meanwhile, his friend, Tom Wellington, appears
to have taken control of his demons and set
himself on a new course. Soon the lives of both
young men, their families and friends, will be
torn asunder by forces and events far beyond
their control.
The Dyeing Room, Robert T.
McMaster’s second novel, is an absorbing blend
of adventure, mystery, and romance populated
with characters so life-like they seem to leap
from the pages and materialize before our very
eyes. Readers young and old will be captivated
by this story from a century past, the world of
our forebears, an era that, however distant,
still speaks to us across the generations.

September, 1917. The nation has entered the
Great War, the War to End All Wars. While young
Americans by the hundreds of thousands march
into battle in Europe, back home the nation's
social fabric is torn asunder by patriotic
fervor and xenophobia. When two German-American
classmates are taunted in the schoolyard,
14-year-old Claire Bernard rushes to their
defense. Her noble intentions soon plunge her
into a dark world of international conspiracy
where prejudice and suspicion blur distinctions
between friend and foe, good and evil, where she
could well become the next victim. Noah's
Raven, a story from a century past that
speaks to us across the generations.
April 10, 1919. The
war in Europe, the Great War, the War to End All
Wars, is over—America and her allies have
defeated the German forces. The USS Mongolia
arrives in Boston carrying nearly 5,000 soldiers
and sailors returning from France. Thousands are
gathered on Commonwealth Pier to welcome the
returning doughboys, dancing, waving flags,
singing, and celebrating the safe return of
their loved ones.
But war changes things. It changes
nations, and it changes people, both those who
fought and those who waited anxiously back home.
One soldier among the thousands arriving in
Boston on this day is not joining in the
celebrations. He is a young man from Holyoke,
Massachusetts. He enlisted out of a sense of
duty to his nation, little knowing the pain, the
hurt he would suffer. His wounds are not those
of gunshots or mustard gas or influenza, they
are wounds of the heart and the soul, and they
are deep.
In Darkest
Before Dawn, Book 4 of the Trolley Days
Series, Massachusetts author Robert T. McMaster
traces the lives of four young people growing up
in a time of turmoil and wrenching change for
their country, their hometown, and themselves.
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