William Martin. The Lost Constitution. Forge, 2007.

William Martin writes historical novels in the vein of James Michener. As Shakespeare would say, they have scope. The Lost Constitution is no exception.

Peter Fallon, whom we first met in Martin’s Harvard Yard, has become the protagonist in a number of his novels. Fallon is a Boston-based rare book and manuscript dealer. Harvard Yard had to do with a lost Shakespeare play. The Lost Constitution tells a tale of an early annotated draft of the United States’ Constitution that had apparently been preserved by a family and handed down through generations.

Form this book, we get an idea of the scope of American history. There is Will Pike, an assistant to Rufus King who was a member of the Constitutional Convention. Pike got the job through a recommendation from Revolutionary War hero Henry Knox because his father was a skilled officer under Knox. Pike’s father and brother are involved in the infamous Shays’ Rebellion in Western Massachusetts, which became an impetus for a true constitution, not the mere Articles of Confederation.

We especially get the history as it played out in New England. The Pike family becomes early investors in textile mills there. Martin notes that the Blackstone River, running roughly from Worcester, Massachusetts, to Providence, Rhode Island, has one of the steepest drops for its length. That made it perfect for water-powered mills.

We see a Pike descendant working briefly during the Civil War in St. Albans, Vermont. Readers familiar with Civil War history can guess what happens. St. Albans would be subject to a Confederate raid from across the border with Canada. Other relatives and business partners are involved with logging in Vermont and New Hampshire.

We meet Harriet Beecher Stowe in both Connecticut and Maine. Gettysburg hero Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain had taught with her husband in Brunswick, Maine. After the war she would settle in Connecticut.

We meet sailors out of Newport, Rhode Island. We are reminded that Rhode Island did not send a delegate to the Constitutional Convention and was the last of the thirteen original states to ratify the document. We also meet a prosperous family in the textile business who owns a mansion in Newport. During the twenties and thirties, Newport also figured in smuggling adult beverages during Prohibition.

(One glitch in the book: Stolichnaya Vodka was first produced some time between 1938 and 1946, so it would not have figured with the Prohibition rum runners.)

Then our contemporary, Peter Fallon himself, in tracking down the alleged document, is caught up in intrigue that takes him to all six New England states. He tries to find family connections in Vermont, ex-New Yorkers now living in Northwest Connecticut, maritime interests in Rhode Island, professors at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, another rare book store in Portland Maine, hoodlums and terrorists in Boston, and strange goings-on all over.

A congresswoman from Massachusetts is sponsoring a bill to repeal the Second Amendment to promote gun control. (This character seems to be inspired by Massachusetts lawmaker Elizabeth Warren.) Of course, the NRA and other human rights organizations oppose this. Both sides believe that the earlier draft of the Constitution, purported to have annotations by King, Elbridge Gerry, and others, could prove their case that either the Second Amendment was (1) a specific right for state and local militias only or (2) a broad right for individual defense of life, liberty, and property.

“We’ll think of something,” repeated Bishop. “As I said, it’s all about opinion molding.”

“I thought it was all about the truth,” snapped Peter. (223)

Or when two men are discussing the issue:

“When the framers said ‘a well-regulated militia,” they meant regulated, like the National Guard, guys who handle guns regularly because they’re regulated, get it?”

“I get what Madison said in The Federalist, ‘The Constitution protects the advantage of being armed which Americans possess over almost every other nation.’ Period. Full stop.” (447, italics in original)

Fallon finds himself traveling all over New England from Maine to Connecticut from the Newport seascape to the top of Mt. Washington, the region’s highest peak. He and his girlfriend Evangeline also find themselves in danger. Even though the tale is about rare manuscripts, it ends up with a body count that reminded this reader more of something by Tom Clancy. (There is, in fact, an homage or tip of the hat to Clancy in the course of the story.) This is a historical novel but it has a lot of action in the vein of one of his technothrillers.

There are also a few love stories and family dramas thrown in. There is a little something for everyone.

Martin gives us a lot to think about, both what it means to be an American and what New England is like.

“…this is a government of laws, and laws are made by men, and men might not always be what God intended them to be, but men like you and me, we’re decent, just the same.” (21)

Peter liked to believe that neighbors looked out for each other, a man’s word was his bond, and, as his mother used to tell him, a stranger was just a friend you hadn’t been introduced to. That was the world he remembered from his boyhood, a better world than most Americans lived in now, and probably a better world than they lived in back then.

Still, the chances of meeting a serial killer instead of the Good Samaritan were small, no matter what they told you on television. (99)

The broad-beamed Aaron Edwards approached, his attitude professorial and paternal, that is to say, condescending and lordly. (190)

“…judges are just lawyers who know politicians…” (253)

“But most people just want to do the right thing and live their lives and be left alone. The people are like gravity pulling the pendulum to the center.” (371)

“In America, we get up in the morning, we go to work, and we solve our problems.” (54 et passim)

About New Englanders: “We live through seven lousy months, just to get to five good ones and call ourselves lucky.” (328)

With Martin’s geographical and historical overview of New England in the form of a thriller, it is not a spoiler by saying that the story ends at one place that all New England (with the exception of parts of Connecticut southwest of the Munson-Nixon line) can focus on and agree on in spite of other divisions—Fenway Park.

N.B: There are sailors, criminals, and others who use crude language in this book. For that reason, it may not be for everyone.