Peter Loon [Hardcover]

Van Reid (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 3, 2002

Readers have been clamoring for a new Van Reid novel with the easy, innocent charm and page-turning exploits of Cordelia Underwood, Mollie Peer, and Daniel Plainway. Their wait is over. Set a century earlier, just after the American Revolution, Peter Loon brings us more of the irresistibly etched characters, intriguing adventures, and wonderful storytelling that we've come to expect.

In 1802, his newly widowed mother dispatches seventeen-year-old Peter Loon from Sheepscott Great Pond, deep in the forested District of Maine, on a singular quest. He is to find Obed Winslow-a long-lost "uncle" whom he will ultimately discover to be more than that to his mother. Along the way the appealing young man finds a guide in one Zachariah Leach, a large-hearted, free-spirited traveling parson with a seafaring past. Together they encounter a rich panoply of characters and find themselves caught in a raging territorial battle between wealthy landowners and rebel hardscrabble homesteaders. Superbly written and deliciously authentic, Peter Loon is a splendid tale of action, adventure, and humor.

"What makes Reid's novels so enjoyable is that they seamlessly combine a time and place . . . with characters whose innocent appreciation of that world turns conventional thinking on its head." (The Washington Post)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Reid slips a bit in the first installment of his latest historical series, following the well-regarded Moosepath League novels with a tepid, unfocused book that chronicles the adventures of Peter Loon, a 17-year-old boy from backwoods Maine whose mother, Rosemund, sends him on an odd quest after the Revolutionary War. When she was a girl, Rosemund had two suitors: Silas Loon and Obed Winslow. She married Silas, but never really loved him, and when he dies in an accident in the 18th year of her marriage, she sends Peter to find Obed. The initial chapters display the same country charm that made Reid's prior books so endearing, but problems start when the author introduces several romantic subplots. Peter's first distraction is the beautiful Nora Tillage, who has been "sold" into virtual slavery by a corrupt preacher named Nathan Barrow. Peter joins a rival preacher, Zachariah Leach, to liberate the girl, but he soon finds himself disturbed by Nora's skittishness. After Peter gets mixed up with a local militia group in a muddled plot twist that includes a village uprising after several unjust arrests, Nora is replaced in his affections by the fiery Elspeth Gray. Peter is a likable if somewhat underdeveloped character, and Reid does a nice job of capturing the tone of the era with his flowing, laid-back prose style. But the murky plotting never really settles into any kind of narrative rhythm, and Reid will need to be a bit more consistent in subsequent volumes to exploit the potential of his unusual setting and situation.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Reid's fourth novel (and the first book in a new series) draws a vivid picture of the disheartening conditions in Maine after the Revolutionary War, when homesteaders and backwoodsmen were forced to do battle with prosperous, long-established families who laid claim to vast tracts of land by virtue of privilege and loyalty to the crown. Into this dispute steps na ve 17-year-old Peter Loon. Dispatched by his widowed mother on the seemingly innocent mission of trying to find an uncle by marriage, he soon takes up with an itinerant saddle preacher. In the course of their travels, they encounter an assortment of characters, some good and some evil, and finally get involved in a territorial conflict. Reid has an excellent sense of dramatic situation, draws shrewd characters, and makes good use of suspense. Writing with power, restraint, and a light comic touch, he keeps a surprise till the last. The book is bound to appeal strongly to many new readers in addition to the large class of initiates for whom the ground has been prepared by the author's "Moosepath League" adventures (e.g., Cordelia Underwood, Mollie Peer). Highly recommended. A.J. Anderson, GSLIS, Simmons Coll., Boston
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 299 pages
• Publisher: Viking Adult; First Edition edition (July 3, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 067003052X
• ISBN-13: 978-0670030521
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,647,402 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful surprise - A great novel, October 28, 2003

By 

"circusbear" (Beautiful New England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Peter Loon (Paperback)

What a shame that the Publisher's Weekly review quoted on this page was so wrongheaded. And what a shame that I allowed it to keep me from reading this book for more than a year! It is almost as if the reviewer expected a romance novel and when it turned out to be something different the reviewer couldn't shift gears. What a shame!
"Peter Loon" is romantic, but in the old fashioned sense, that of an adventure. What hints of romance there are in the book are realistic and touching.
But it is the adventure that carries this book! It reminded me of something by Robert Louis Stevenson and that is no exageration. In particular "Peter Loon" reminded me of "Kidnapped." There is the beginning of the book, where the young man is looking for an uncle. There is the similarity in that both young protaganists come under the mentorship of an older wiser man. In Peter's case it is the extraordinary Parson Leach, who is one of the most fascinating charcters I have encountered in fiction lately. Also linking this book with "Kidnapped" in my mind is that both find their young wanderers stumbling into a civil rebellion. I loved "Kidnapped" and must go back and reread it after all these years. I loved "Peter Loon" too.
Made to choose, I would pick Mr. Reid's Moosepath series as my favorites, but this slice of eighteenth century adventure is exciting, evocative, and uplifting. The mistical scene when Peter is traveling the northern by forest and finds himself in the middle of a herd of dear is worth the price of the book. More people should read it and learn from Parson Leach about how to confront a dangerous situation with true Christian principle. Not to worry, the book is not preachy, only powerful.
It will be a long time before I let a bad review keep me away from one of my favorite authors. Sorry Mr. Reid. And thank you. My faith in your skills is unshaken. Beautiful cover, too.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Van Reid does it again, Maine style, December 16, 2002

By 

L. Bartels (Mamaroneck, NY USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Peter Loon (Hardcover)

Sometime in the past four years I read three delightful books by Van Reid. The books form a trilogy of a tale about life in Maine around the turn of the century (Victorian era) meaning the end of the 1800s. The first is Cordelia Underwood followed by Mollie Peer and then Daniel Plainway. The books are filled with delicious characters, and indeed one of Van Reid's strengths is his ability to create characters who, however eccentric they may be, are as believable as can be. I enjoyed these tales so much that it was with eager anticipation that I awaited his next book, Peter Loon.
Off to what seemed a slow start--perhaps because it wasn't populated by as many characters--I thought Van Reid might have lost his touch. But happily I was wrong, and Van Reid was just warming up. This tale in the Maine backcountry takes place some sixteen years or so after the Revolutionary War. Maine was still part of Massachusetts (ha, I never knew that!) The backcountry was fairly sparse and developed by those who bothered to clear the land. The problem was that the more landed gentry wanted the backcountry folk to pay for the land they cleared, and the backcountry folk felt that their labor was sufficient payment. The more I read the story, the more I realized that Van Reid's style fit the tale...Maine's backcountry was not very populated so while the tale had some downright fathomable characters, there weren't a lot of them, just like the backcountry. Van Reid is a descriptive story teller who paints characters and settings that draw you in. I'd like to travel to Maine and meet him!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Every bit as good as the previous three., August 8, 2002

By 

Timothy J Walburg (Wyoming, MI United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Peter Loon (Hardcover)

Another Van Reid masterpiece. Although this book is more linear in storyline than the Marvelous Moosepath adventures it still has every bit of charm and whimsically drawn characters as they do.
I found it very interesting in my own reading experience that upon completion of the book I found that only several days had passed in the life of Peter Loon. So many experiences in such a short time!
Once again Mr. Reid delivers a fine story with absolutely no objectionable (mature themes and language) material and goodness knows that is rare these days.
Buy it and let's all put Van Reid on the New York Times bestseller list in place of the dreck that usually winds up there... Maybe that's not a good idea as that appears to be the bottom of the cesspool of the literary world. Ah well...