Local Author, Linda Donaghue, Reads and Discusses Her New Novel, RESURRECTION

Start: 06/02/2012 12:04 pm

“In all its incarnations, Lowell has maintained some
institutional dignity, a hierarchy of success, and a niche for the failed, a
little grand, a little shabby, and sometimes unbearably sad.”

So begins Linda Donaghue’s new novel, RUSURRECTION, a
bittersweet love song inspired by her childhood hometown, Lowell, MA, and
dedicated to her father, Jimmy Donaghue.

For a retired detective an unsolved case suddenly thrust in
the present threatens to become the legacy of his career. For his daughter,
Police Sergeant Mary Elizabeth Muldoon, the same case may be her last. An
informer and recovering drug addict is found dead twenty years after the brutal
slaying of a young man who moved in the same circles as the victim. Mary
Elizabeth will begin to unravel long dormant clues that will awaken the
histories of the dead but also the guilty who will go to any lengths to keep
the case unsolved. As she and her partner are entangled to degrees that
jeopardize their friendships, lives and careers, Mary Elizabeth struggles with
her personal demons and public failings. And the bodies begin to pile up. Set
in Lowell, Massachusetts, the city is a character by itself: shadowy and
powerful, degraded and rehabilitated, a sort of cultural Phoenix with a past
that represents all the greatness and grime of an immigrant city on the cusp of
reinventing itself or continuing a sad decline, not unlike Mary Elizabeth
herself.

Donaghue has been living in rural Vermont for a number
of years. Many Valley residents recognize Donaghue as a
contributor to the Deer field Valley News which often features pieces Donaghue
writes about local history and denizens.
She is also the author of A GOODLY HERITAGE, a collection of stories
about Whitingham residents.
Nonetheless, as a native of Lowell, Donaghue has never forgotten her
experiences of growing up there. Lowell
and its' stories, its' hardscrabble neighborhoods, its' strong, funny,
pragmatic, loving, and sometimes lost characters have never left her. The colleges,
the churches, the auditorium, the majestic city hall, the Merrimack River
itself, Lowell is steeped in the histories of one ethnic group after another,
one grand plan after another all hoping for the same thing: a future that is
prosperous or safe or just better.

Join the author and the staff of Bartleby’s on
Saturday, June 2nd at 4pm for an afternoon of reading and conversation – the
event is free and open to the public.
Bartleby’s Books is located at 17 West Main Street right in the heart of
downtown Wilmington, VT. For questions
or to reserve a copy of the book call 802-464-5425, email us at
bartbook@sover.net, or visit us anytime online at myvermontbookstore.com.