Martha Conway

Set aboard a nineteenth century riverboat theater, this is the moving, page-turning story of a charmingly frank and naive seamstress who is blackmailed into saving runaways on the Underground Railroad, jeopardizing her freedom, her livelihood, and a new love. It’s 1838, and May Bedloe works as a seamstress for her cousin, the famous actress Comfort Vertue—until their steamboat sinks on the Ohio River. Though they both survive, both must find new employment. Comfort is hired to give lectures by noted abolitionist, Flora Howard, and May finds work on a small flatboat, Hugo and Helena’s Floating Theatre, as it cruises the border between the northern states and the southern slave-holding states. May becomes indispensable to Hugo and his troupe, and all goes well until she sees her cousin again. Comfort and Mrs. Howard are also traveling down the Ohio River, speaking out against slavery at the many riverside towns. May owes Mrs. Howard a debt she cannot repay, and Mrs. Howard uses the opportunity to enlist May in her network of shadowy characters who ferry babies given up by their slave mothers across the river to freedom. Lying has never come easy to May, but now she is compelled to break the law, deceive all her new-found friends, and deflect the rising suspicions of Dr. Early who captures runaways and sells them back to their southern masters. As May’s secrets become more tangled and harder to keep, the Floating Theatre readies for its biggest performance yet. May’s predicament could mean doom for all her friends on board, including her beloved Hugo, unless she can figure out a way to trap those who know her best.

A Novel

The Underground River

Physician's Daughter

The Floating Theatre

ON A HUMID MORNING in 1806, on the edge of Ohio's Great Black Swamp, seventeen-year-old Susanna Quiner watches helplessly from behind a tree as a band of Potawatomi Indians kidnaps her four older sisters from their cabin. With both her parents dead from Swamp Fever and all the other settlers away in their fields, Susanna rashly decides to pursue them herself. What follows is a young woman's quest to save her sisters and the parallel story of her sisters' new lives. Over the next five months, Susanna tans hides in a Moravian missionary village; escapes down a river with a young native girl; discovers an eccentric white woman raising chickens in the middle of the Great Black Swamp; and becomes a servant in a Wyandot village longhouse. The man who is in love with her, Seth Spendlove, is in pursuit after he realizes that his father directed the kidnapping. Part Potawatomi but living a white man's life, Seth unwittingly sets off on his own quest to reclaim his heritage as he searches for Susanna and her sisters. THIEVING FOREST depicts the transformation of all five sisters as the Quiners contend with starvation, slavery, betrayal, and love. Beautifully written and richly detailed, it paints a fascinating new picture of pioneer life among Native American communities, while telling a gripping tale of survival. "An elegiac, hopeful historical novel... hypnotic." (Kirkus Reviews) "A powerful tale of sisterhood and survival." (San Jose Mercury News)

Thieving Forest

Set aboard a nineteenth century riverboat theater, this New York Times Notable book is the “captivating, thoughtful, and unforgettable” (Kathleen Grissom, author of The Kitchen House) story of a charmingly frank and naive seamstress who is blackmailed into saving runaways on the Underground Railroad, jeopardizing her freedom, her livelihood, and a new love. It’s 1838, and May Bedloe works as a seamstress for her cousin, the famous actress Comfort Vertue—until their steamboat sinks on the Ohio River. Though they both survive, both must find new employment. Comfort is hired to give lectures by noted abolitionist, Flora Howard, and May finds work on a small flatboat, Hugo and Helena’s Floating Theatre, as it cruises the border between the northern states and the southern slave-holding states. May becomes indispensable to Hugo and his troupe, and all goes well until she sees her cousin again. Comfort and Mrs. Howard are also traveling down the Ohio River, speaking out against slavery at the many riverside towns. May owes Mrs. Howard a debt she cannot repay, and Mrs. Howard uses the opportunity to enlist May in her network of shadowy characters who help ferry slaves across the river to freedom. Lying has never come easy to May, but now she is compelled to break the law, deceive all her newfound friends, and deflect the rising suspicions of a slave catcher. As May’s secrets become more tangled, the Floating Theatre readies for its biggest performance yet. May’s predicament could mean doom for her friends on board, including her beloved Hugo, unless she can figure out a way to entrap those who know her best. “Twain has his ‘Life on the Mississippi’. Conway’s life on the Ohio makes you see the place, through May’s eyes, in all its muddy glory” (New York Times Book Review).

It is 1865, the American Civil War has just ended, and 18-year old Vita Tenney is determined to pursue her lifelong dream of becoming a country doctor like her father. But when her father tells her she must get married instead, Vita explores every means of escape - and finds one in the person of war veteran Jacob Culhane. Damaged by what he's seen in battle and with all his family gone, Jacob is seeking investors for a fledgling business. Then he meets Vita - and together they hatch a plan that should satisfy both their desires. Months later, Vita seemingly has everything she ever wanted. But alone in a big city and haunted by the mistakes of her past, she wonders if the life she always thought she wanted was too good to be true. When love starts to compete with ambition, what will come out on top? From the author of The Floating Theatre comes this compelling new novel of female perseverance. Set in the aftermath of the American Civil War, THE PHYSICIAN'S DAUGHTER is the story of two people trying to make their way in a world that is struggling to escape its past. 'Completely charming' Imogen Hermes Gowar, author of The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock on The Floating Thetare

The Physician's Daughter

1865: the American Civil War has just ended, and 18-year old Vita Tenney is determined to pursue her lifelong dream of becoming a country doctor like her father. But when her father tells her she must get married instead, Vita explores every means of escape - and finds one in the person of war veteran Jacob Culhane. Damaged by what he's seen in battle and with all his family gone, Jacob is seeking investors for a fledgling business. Then he meets Vita - and together they hatch a plan that should satisfy both their desires. 'The Physician's Daughter' is a novel of female perseverance and the role of women in society set in the aftermath of the American Civil War.

On a humid day in June 1806, on the edge of Ohio's Great Black Swamp, seventeen-year-old Susanna Quiner watches from behind a tree as a band of Potawatomi Indians kidnaps her four older sisters from their cabin. With both her parents dead from Swamp Fever and all the other settlers out in their fields, Susanna rashly decides to pursue them herself. What follows is a young woman's quest to find her sisters, and the parallel story of her sisters' new lives. Over the next five months, Susanna tans hides in a Moravian missionary village; escapes down a river with a young native girl; discovers an eccentric white woman raising chickens in the middle of the Great Black Swamp; and becomes a servant in a Wyandot village longhouse. The man who loves her, Seth Spendlove, is in pursuit after he realizes that his father was involved in the kidnapping. Part Potawatomi himself but living a white man's life, Seth unwittingly sets off on his own quest to reclaim his heritage. He allies himself with a Potawatomi named Koman, one of the band of men who originally abducted the Quiner sisters, but who now wishes to make his own retribution. Together they canoe through the Black Swamp and into enemy territory looking for Susanna, and while they travel Koman teaches Seth about their shared heritage. As Susanna makes her way through Thieving Forest and across the Great Black Swamp, she transforms into a capable woman who endures starvation, snakebite, and leech-infested waters in order to find her family. And against all odds she does find them, although they too have changed: one has found religion, one has fallen in love with a Native American and lives with his family, and one has been sold to a brutal backwoodsman. Both a quest tale and a tale of personal transformations, Thieving Forest follows an eclectic set of characters tackling the wildness of life in frontier America. Fast-paced, richly detailed, with a panoramic view of cultures and people, this is a story of a bygone era sure to enthrall and delight.

From the author of The Underground River comes this compelling new novel of female perseverance. Set in the aftermath of the Civil War, The Physician's Daughter is the story of two people trying to make their way in a world that is struggling to escape its past. It is 1865, the American Civil War has just ended, and 18-year old Vita Tenney is determined to pursue her lifelong dream of becoming a country doctor like her father. But when her father tells her she must get married instead, Vita explores every means of escape - and finds one in the person of war veteran Jacob Culhane. Damaged by what he's seen in battle and with all his family gone, Jacob is seeking investors for a fledgling business. Then he meets Vita - and together they hatch a plan that should satisfy both their desires. Months later, Vita seemingly has everything she ever wanted. But alone in a big city and haunted by the mistakes of her past, she wonders if the life she always thought she wanted was too good to be true. When love starts to compete with ambition, what will come out on top?

Tired of her the rut her life has fallen into after her divorce, Nicola begins to reconsider her longings for excitement when she is kidnapped after kickboxing class and a crush on a stranger turns dangerous.

12 Bliss Street

"Short-story writer Conway's jump to novel length is as lean and sexy as her cardio-kickboxing heroine." - Kirkus Reviews Nicola is having a really bad day. She's tired of her job, her boss, and even her San Francisco apartment, which she's just heard she's being evicted from anyway. Her life's only excitement is fueled by fantasy – about the expensive lingerie she wears under her business suits, about a man she sees at lunch every day, a darkly handsome man she calls Chorizo, after the kind of pizza he orders. She's flat-out tired of her life, and nothing brings it home more than running into her annoying but harmless ex-husband, Scooter, on the way to work. But if ever anyone learns a lesson in "be careful what you wish for," it's Nicola, because suddenly her life seems to be full of excitement. First she gets kidnapped after kickboxing class by two inept teenagers who, it turns out, aren't your garden-variety ransom kidnappers at all. But before she can resolve this situation, her innocent flirtation with Chorizo turns sinister. Suddenly Nicola's problem is no longer how to survive her boredom but how to survive, period. All in all, Martha Conway's debut is a deliciously hip, sexy, and suspenseful crime novel.

Con un barco teatro que recorre el río Ohio durante el siglo XIX como telón de fondo, El Teatro Flotante es la emocionante historia de una costurera encantadoramente sincera e ingenua que, víctima de un chantaje, tendrá que ayudar a salvar a esclavos prófugos, poniendo en riesgo su libertad, su modo de vida y un nuevo amor. Cuando la joven costurera May Bedlow se queda sola y sin un centavo en un pueblo a las orillas del río Ohio, encontrará trabajo en el famoso Teatro Flotante de Hugo y Helena que navega llevando su espectáculo a ambas orillas del río. Su creatividad y su maestría con la aguja la hacen inmediatamente imprescindible y se convertirá en una más de la colorida troupe de artistas. Por primera vez en su vida May parece haber encontrado amigos y quizás algo más... Pero la frontera entre el Sur Confederado y el Norte libre está lleno de peligros... Para saldar una deuda que nunca podrá pagar, May se verá obligada a colaborar en el transporte secreto de pasajeros, cruzando el río al abrigo de la oscuridad de la noche... Una lectura cautivadora, inteligente e inolvidable. Kathleen Grissom, autora de The Kitchen House y Glory over Everything El Teatro Flotante es una novela llena de emoción y de atmósfera sobre la esclavitud, la traición y la redención, con una heroína inolvidable por su franqueza, y una trama tan rápida y llena de giros inesperados como el propio río.

Martha Conway

About

Books

Join the club