Synopsis

Ghosts of Glencoe is a multi-generational adventure of self-discovery. The novel spans a mere four months, set at a unique junior boarding school, and played out in the rugged Adirondack mountains of New York.

This is a Hero’s Journey for two flawed protagonists, one fifteen, the other sixty-three. Both struggle to be accountable to themselves and to those who love them, for their hubris, betrayals, for the shadows they created and still carry. In their tortuous path to absolution, both discover one is never too young to teach, nor too old to learn.

In the fall of 2002, dramatic events engulf three ninth graders (not the best of friends), their passionate Scottish headmaster, and an unlikely pair of escapees from a nearby prison. The inevitable collision of these forces demonstrates that age and experience have no monopoly on bravery or vulnerability.

Only after superficial differences are peeled away can the teens summon the strength to find common ground to confront their frailties under the most trying conditions—lost in the snowy mountains with rescuers urgently trying to find them and the convicts desperately plotting to eliminate them.

Ghosts of Glencoe is a page-turning adventure, set in wilderness that is as much a factor as the characters themselves. The story entertains, educates, and illustrates how the mountaineering mantra—Fellowship of the Rope—embodies the imperative that if we don’t hang together, we will surely hang alone.

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Praise for Ghosts of Glencoe

Suspenseful, gripping, and fast-paced with adept scene shifting: some unlikely ninth graders from an unusual school collide in a deadly encounter with two escaped convicts in the winter-deep Adirondack woods.  Safe-guarded secrets clamor to spring loose, challenging the head-of-school to come to terms with his own shameful past.

• Laura Waterman, author, Starvation Shore

Riveting and wise, a page-turner with ratcheting suspense, stunning mountains, and a big heart; characters with painful secrets and self-doubts find their own strength as they push the limits of physical endurance. Chilling bad guys, pathless woods, and extreme winter conditions threaten three teens from an Adirondack school and challenge its headmaster in an edge-of-the-cliff adventure that changes lives.

• Susan Strehle, Distinguished Service Professor of English at Binghamton University. Author, Fiction in the Quantum Universe. Her work has been published in Critique, Review of Contemporary Fiction, Contemporary Literature, and Modern Fiction Studies.

The Adirondacks are magical, but also more complicated than many visitors ever realize. This book helps capture the majesty and the complexity of one of the world’s great places.

• Bill McKibben, author Radio Free Vermont

Ghosts of Glencoe combines a gripping narrative with a lush and lyrical description of the landscapes they are set within. Mountains and characters come alive in this work that has the finest elements of expedition story, coming-of-age novel, and thrilling adventure.

• Julia Goren, Adirondack Mountain Club Deputy Executive Director, contributing author, Adirondack Archangels

Ghosts of Glencoe is a thrillingly plotted, utterly authentic coming-of-age story of what we can all learn from wilderness, at any age. I cared what happened to these characters, and couldn’t stop reading until its most satisfying conclusion.

• Marion Nestle, professor of nutrition, food studies, and public health, emerita, New York University., author Food Politics

Many of the places and events depicted in Ghosts of Glencoe will be familiar to experienced Adirondack hikers, but one doesn’t need that background to appreciate this novel. The characters are individuals that one cares for right from the start, and one doesn’t need to be an Adirondacker to relate to the lyrical descriptions of terrain. I definitely sensed bits of Touching the Void as well as the recently famous Dannemora prison break in this novel, but the author skillfully makes these widely disparate themes come together. Additionally, the wilderness survival storyline reminded me of the search for fugitive Major Anthony Call in Bernard Conners’ 1954 thriller, Tailspin.  Ghosts of Glencoe is definitely both a fun and satisfying read.

• Tony Goodwin, editor of five editions of High Peaks Trails, four guides to ski touring and snowshoeing, and numerous articles in Adirondack-related magazines. Retired Executive Director of the Adirondack Trail Improvement Society

Ghosts of Glencoe is truly authentic adventure story set in the wilderness of the Adirondack mountains, a place where I spent countless hours as a kid and camp counselor. Readers will enjoy the suspenseful outcome of the main protagonists: a 63-year-old headmaster and a 15-year old 9th Grader, who struggle with personal accountability for shadows they themselves created.  This compelling tale is set at a unique boarding school, where children are key contributors to its operation, where experiential education is paramount, and where the utilization of technology is healthy and suitably limited.

• James Steyer, Civil rights attorney, professor, and author. Founder, Common Sense Media

Ghosts of Glencoe is a gripping tale with its roots in the Adirondacks that the writer knows so well. The plot begins with many descriptive and disparate strands which the author weaves expertly into a fascinating tale of challenge and growth. A thoroughly entertaining read!

• Philip Corell, Treasurer/Adirondack Forty-Sixers; contributing author, Adirondack Archangels and Heaven Up’Histedness