Donald G. Shomette

This is an epic story of crime and intrigue, love and courage, tragedy and vengeance spans more than half a century. It tells the tale of two women — one, a victim of a beastly killer; the other, her sister bent on the ultimate revenge despite insurmountable obstacles. Follow the events leading up to the June 15, 1955, killing of two teenage girls, Ellen Marie Chauvanne and Mikie O'Riley, and the ensuing nationwide hunt for a killer. Despite one false lead after another, there was no resolution … until a surprising phone call was received more than forty years later.

This book will keep you guessing who is the murder and how after forty years the case comes to life again. It is a captive read of sorrow and wanting justice for the girls. You are taken on a journey in which is horrid and brutal. If you like murder mysteries this book is for you.

I was given this book from Schiffer Publishing www.schifferbooks.com… (altro)

I liked so much about this book, I really wanted to give it 5 stars...but there are enough rough spots that I couldn't.

Shomette begins his tale very well, as he begins with a ship that begins its life at sea for one purpose and then carries us along as the "mission" changes. The ship is eventually wrecked, and we learn about maritime law (which is a slightly different beast than we landlubbers are familiar with). He takes us through the sinking of the ship and the eventual discovery nearly a century later. And then he introduces us to casual scavengers who take no care in how they approach sunken "treasure." One would think, in this day and age, that we all understand how much AIR can do to destroy artifacts that have been living in anaerobic conditions. How Shomette obtained funding and sponsorship for his archeology was well written and attention-grabbing.

Part two of the book (it is divided into 3 parts) is also interesting--detailing the first settlement at Kents Island, on the Eastern Shore of the state of Maryland. The comparison maps of the Bay today, and the Bay 7,000 BP (before present) just incredible. But too often he forgets to "tell" us the story and simply copies diaries, journals, and old letters. I found it rough slogging through much of it.

Part three of the book is about Mallows Bay, a graveyard for a WWI fleet of wooden vessels. Again, he sometimes lapses into facts and figures and forgets to tell his story. But the end of the book, as he tells of nature reclaiming the Bay and recreating its own new ecosystem with the flotsam left there by humankind is uplifting.

I am glad I read it, though I wish Shomette had hired a ghost writer to help him write the book that should have been written. His research was so impressive. Perhaps a student of antiquities or colonial times will appreciate the book more than I did.… (altro)

While I'm unfamiliar with the earlier edition of this book, and what improvements the author may have made, this is a good blow by blow examination of the raiding war implemented by the British in the region and the efforts of grizzled American seadog Joshua Barney to improvise a defense based on light naval forces. While the narrative has its climax with Commodore Barney's last stand at the battle of Bladensburg, the book finishes by examining the contributions of Barney's flottilamen to the defense of Baltimore.… (altro)