The Salty Rose

 The Salty Rose

by Beth M. Caruso 

 

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GENRE: Historical Fiction

 

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BLURB:

 

Marie du Trieux, a tavern keeper with a salty tongue and a heart of gold, struggles as she navigates love and loss, Native wars, and possible banishment by authorities in the unruly trading port of New Amsterdam, an outpost of the Dutch West India Company.

 

In New England, John Tinker, merchant and assistant to a renowned alchemist and eventual leader of Connecticut Colony, must come to terms with a family tragedy of dark proportions, all the while supporting his mentor’s secret quest to find the Northwest Passage, a desired trading route purported to mystically unite the East with the West.

 

As the lives of Marie and John become intertwined through friendship and trade, a search for justice of a Dutch woman accused of witchcraft in Hartford puts them on a collision course affecting not only their own destinies but also the fate of colonial America.

 

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EXCERPT:

 

Chapter 5

 

“Aye. And now it is apparent that Robin comes from a line of sachems, but I worry that if this became widely known among some English, they would go after his life,” spoke Tinker. 

 

“You are a wise man, John Tinker. Had his exalted position been known during the war or even shortly after, he would be dead this day. We cannot allow for such a possibility. That brings me to my next point which ties all of our future goals neatly together,” he said. 

 

He paused to make sure his pupil and alchemical assistant grasped the significance of what he was about to say next. 

 

Tinker nodded. “Go on, sir,” he said. 

 

Winthrop riffled through his letters from Howes, finding the one that made their mission clear. 

 

“I did not share this correspondence from Howes with you before. But now you are ready and must understand the whole of our purpose here in these colonies.” 

 

Before Winthrop read the second letter from Howes, he pulled out a peculiar book. The title was The Circumference of the Earth, or a Treatise of the Northeast Passage by Sir Dudley Digges. The word east had been crossed out and replaced with west. 

 

“I will skip the familiarities and salutations and get to the heart of the matter,” Winthrop said and began to read. 

 

I shall and will by God’s leave endeavor towards you and the work. Here enclosed you shall find a book of probabilities of the Northwest Passage not in the 60 or 70 degrees of northern latitudes, but rather about the 40th. 

 

“That’s near the former Pequot territories and at the center of New Amsterdam!” John Tinker cried out, wide-eyed.

 

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

 

Award-winning author, Beth M. Caruso, is passionate to discover and convey important and interesting stories of women from earlier times. She recently won the literary prize in Genre Fiction (2020) from IPNE (Independent Publishers of New England) for her most recent novel The Salty Rose: Alchemists, Witches & A Tapper In New Amsterdam (2019). The Salty Rose is Beth’s second historical novel and explores alchemy in early colonial times, an insider’s view of the takeover of the Dutch colony of New Netherland, and the Hartford Witch Panic with information she gathered from previous and ongoing research. Beth’s first historical novel is One of Windsor: The Untold Story of America’s First Witch Hanging (2015), a novel that tells the tale of Alice ‘Alse’ Young and the beginnings of the colonial witch trials. She based the story on original research she did by exploring early primary sources such as early Windsor land records, vital statistics, and other documents. She lives in Connecticut with her family. Beth kayaks and gardens to unwind.

 

Website: www.oneofwindsor.com

 

Email: oneofwindsor@yahoo.com

 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/oneofwindsor

 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bethmcaruso/

 

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Salty-Rose-Alchemists-Witches-Amsterdam/dp/1733373802

 

Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-salty-rose-beth-m-caruso/1133991342

 

 

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GIVEAWAY INFORMATION 

 

Beth M. Caruso will be awarding a $25 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

a Rafflecopter giveaway