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The Chalk Town Train & Other Tales: The Harper Chronicles, Volume One

by Daniel Elton Harmon

152 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #01-0392; ISBN 1-55212-990-X; US$17.50, C$19.95, EUR14.50, £10.00

Harper, crime reporter for a small-city newspaper in the post-Reconstruction South, uncovers startling schemes, secrets and mysteries behind mysteries.

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About the book      About the author      Sample excerpt      Catalogue info

About the Book Six unmarked graves hold the secret to an older generation's hideous ordeal.... Escaped convicts invade a riverside campsite.... A ring of prestigious businessmen carry out a massive estate swindle in the state capital.... Shipwreck survivors sheltered at a Low Country fishing village have much, much to hide.... And the president of the United States turns to a small-city journalist to intercept a damaging piece of diplomatic correspondence. Harper, nonconforming and nonpareil crime reporter for the fledgling Challenge, finds himself in the thick of these and other dramas in the post-Reconstruction South. Through intuition, deduction, focused research and on-the-scene investigation, Harper probes to the heart of each affair. In the process, he often uncovers facts and circumstances he can never publish-and enters the hazy borderland between observer and participant.

About the Author South Carolina author and editor Daniel Elton Harmon has written more than thirty nonfiction books. Recently published by Chelsea House are Nigeria and Sudan, two of his six volumes in the "Exploration of Africa: The Emerging Nations" series; The Titanic, part of the "Great Disasters: Reforms and Ramifications" series; and several juvenile biographies in the "Explorers of New Worlds" series. His freelance articles have appeared in such periodicals as Nautilus, Music Journal and The New York Times. He is the associate editor of Sandlapper: The Magazine of South Carolina and editor of The Lawyer's PC, a technology newsletter for legal professionals. The Chalk Town Train & Other Tales is his first book of fiction and the first of his series of short story collections that follow the career of Harper the crime reporter. Click here to visit the author's web site, Daniel Elton Harmon *----------------------------------* Click here to read a review of the book MURDER EXPRESS *----------------------------------* Click here to read another review of the book FOUR STAR REVIEW *----------------------------------* More reviews: "These days, anthologies tend to either be collections of the year's best something-or-other or compilations of literary short stories intended to elevate and edify. Both have their place in the scheme of things, but I suspect I'm not the only one who misses anthologies that contain just good entertainment. If that's the case, may I offer for your amusement a slim little volume of tales by journalist Daniel Elton Harmon and featuring an historical counterpart of the author by the name of Harper. Mr. Harper is a reporter for the fictitious Columbia, S.C., Challenge in the almost-civilized era of the 1880's. The first compilation of his adventures, The Chalk Town Train & Other Tales, is billed as volume one of The Harper Chronicles, and those of us who like nothing better than a rollicking good yarn will be waiting impatiently for volume two. The title story pits Harper against a notorious sociopath, back before such people actually had a diagnosis. "The Chalk Town Train" is a story of corporate shenanigans, unadulterated evil and justice administered with more than a touch of irony. Indeed, the purveyance of justice is a recurring theme in the eight stories that comprising the book, with our man Harper using his skill and insight to ferret out the truth, sometimes when no one else can. Mr. Harmon has a superbly deft hand with the short story, and his characters are sharply drawn with a few adept strokes. From first word to last, each of Harper's adventures proceeds without a stumble, and the reader who can stop after reading just one must have a will of iron. His style is crisp and effortless, setting scenes with an economy of language that likely owes much to the author's own career as a journalist. Indeed, the only real flaw in The Chalk Town Train is that it's over too soon, and before the appetite is satisfied." -- Elizabeth Burton, Blue Iris Journal www.blueirisjournal.com *----------------------------------* "Imagine a cross between Sherlock Holmes and Mark Twain and you get some idea of these entertaining stories set in post-Reconstruction South Carolina. Harper, a journalist on the Columbia Challenge, combines his powers of intuition and deduction with a newspaperman's observation and a nonconformist's detachment to investigate the crimes and mysteries that come his way. In 'The Swindlers' Circle' he exposes a businessmen's financial scam; while covering a court case in Charleston, he meets some sailors ('The Derelict Seamen') whom he soon realizes are not the innocent shipwreck victims they claim to be; and in 'The Tavern Horror' the sighting of a British Redcoat's ghost conceals a more sinister mystery. Some of his sleuthing unearths the traumatic past: ex-slaves fleeing injustice in 'Convicts of the Congaree'; the tragic story behind some mysterious burials in 'The Marion Graves.' "Linking the 8 stories are the attractive character of Harper himself -- aloof, wryly humorous, a man of integrity who eschews the gratuitously sensational; his own crisp observations of the victims, villains, relatives and rivals who populate his days; and the vivid descriptions of the town and country settings of the tales." "Written with verve, wit, and freshness, this is a high-quality read from an author who, one feels, instinctively knows how to tell a good, old-fashioned story." --Sarah Cuthbertson, Historical Novel Society www.historicalnovelsociety.org *----------------------------------* "A delightful collection of short stories reminiscent of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories. Harper is a journalist in South Carolina in the late 19th century. His beat is crime stories. What sets him apart from his fellow journalists is his integrity and refusal to sensationalize the stories he covers. "He gets to do quite a bit of sleuthing and brings us unusual stories that have mystified the inhabitants of the towns he covers. The chronicles are great little stories, and are wonderfully written. Daniel Harmon has proven what a great story teller he is. A perfect way to enjoy these stories is to read them aloud with those close to you who enjoy hearing a good tale." --Diane Morgan, NewBookReviews.com www.newbookreviews.com *----------------------------------* "Now I remember why I was once an avid reader of short stories. It was because of stories like Daniel Elton Harmon writes in his just published The Chalk Town Train & Other Tales. "In a long-ago world, the mainstay of many weekly and monthly magazines was the fiction short story. In that long-ago world, I waited beside the mailbox on the day that magazines like The Saturday Evening Post, Look and Redbook were delivered because they entertained me with some of the best short story fiction ever written. . . . "Today, most short stories are published in books and a few intellectual magazines. Usually when I finish reading these stories, I scratch my head and wonder what I've read. Maybe - just maybe - with his Chalk Town Train, Harmon is starting a trend back to popular short stories that are written for no reason except to entertain... "Chalk has delightful, entertaining short stories. The kind I used to read in The Saturday Evening Post... I sure hope there will be a volume two and three and on and on." --Winston Hardegree, Herald-Journal (Spartanburg, SC) *----------------------------------* "Harper is a crime reporter for a South Carolina newspaper called The Challenge during the Reconstruction era. He not only reports on crimes and mysteries but sometimes even has a hand in solving them and in this slim volume of short stories he gets to the bottom of a murderous ghostly Redcoat, a soi-disant Devil's Island escapee who intrudes on his camping holiday, finds out who lies buried in six unmarked graves that nobody will talk about and saves the President's bacon among other things. This is what the book is about, but it conveys nothing of the magic of these tales. I am not normally a short story fan and always say I like a longer novel to get my teeth into but there is plenty in these brief tales to satisfy several sets of teeth. Drawing on a rich heritage of fiction Harmon has come up with a unique character that although he is never physically described comes to vivid life from his first introduction, and a way of telling the stories that kept making me thinking they were written back in the 1890s instead of just being set then. Think of Davidson Post's Uncle Abner stories or Blackwood's John Silence, mix them together and you have something like Harper and something of the ambience of these laconic - but well realised - vignettes. Harmon has taken words and crafted them into something that ought to be called literature. This isn't a literary novel - there is nothing obscure here - but I think literary fans would find much to applaud. A few words and a bold stroke of the pen and it all leaps to life in a way that many wordier writers must surely envy. I read a lot of historical crime but this has to be one of the best - and most imaginative - books I have read this year. One for the keeper shelf (it doesn't even take up much room)." --Reviewed by Rachel A Hyde MyShelf.com *----------------------------------* "Although this is the first book of fiction by Daniel Elton Harmon, it is far from his first published work. He has written more than thirty non-fiction books. This is a fascinating collection of eight short stories, each featuring his late-nineteenth-century newspaper reporter hero, Harper. They held my interest to the end. Harmon is a skilled writer, and I look forward to reading more of his work. He is a yarn spinner of the old school, reminiscent of Samuel Clemens or Booth Tarkington, who revels in story telling for the sake of story telling. A modern troubador. He lives in Lexington, South Carolina where he is well known not only for his writing, but also for his music making with his small folk music band, according to the book's introduction. There are eight short stories in the book, all of which are quickly read and very entertaining. This is a wonderful book to read for your own pleasure, or to give as a gift. I recommend it highly." Reviwed by Joseph Pierre, author of The Road to Damascus and other books. *----------------------------------*

Sample Excerpt

     Harper barely could discern the hounds' silhouettes near the foot of the front steps. Crouched and motionless, they growled almost imperceptibly. Harper stood at the darkened corner window of the empty parlor. The only light shining in the house was the kitchen lantern. Outside, one street light shown at the corner. No one could be seen within its circle, but enemies, he knew, were about.

     Harper, like Moore, heard the approaching whistle of the Chalk Town train. That told him it was almost 7:45. Then the minutes dragged by. Five? Ten? Twenty? Harper could not judge. He was about to move toward the open kitchen doorway so he could check his watch in the light - and then he saw it: a match struck at the edge of the woods across the street. Then a torch. A second torch. They hovered, lingering close together in the black surroundings. Harper could distinguish no human form. Suddenly one of the torches moved along the edge of the dirt street, away from the corner. Heading for the rear! Harper surmised.

     He lifted the 12-guage. If he fired now, he believed, he might blow out the torch before it was out of range. Harper aimed, leading the moving light slightly, and squeezed one of the triggers....

Catalogue Information