My summer reading included two books that featured Marblehead. One was from Robert Parker’s “Jesse Stone” series. Jesse Stone is the chief of police in a fictional town named “Paradise.” Parker used Marblehead as the setting for the series. The irony—no coincidence in Parker’s choice for the name—is that even in “Paradise” crime, broken relationships, and questionable behavior goes on. Fortunately, Jesse Stone is around, gets the bad guys and sets things right. (A confession: I read two books from this series.  They are real page-turners!)

The other book was General John Glover and his Marblehead Mariners, by George Athan Billias. A parishioner loaned me this book last spring after I read The Hearth and the Eagle, by Anya Seton. General John Glover was not the page-turner of the Jesse Stone books. It did, however, provide some wonderful insight regarding Marblehead in the mid to late 18th century and the War for Independence.

St. Michael’s Church was not mentioned in either book, but the parish was never far from my thoughts as I pieced together contemporary locales and discovered historical settings. ... Read more in this month's newsletter