Moosepath trilogy done > Edgecomb novelist ties up loose ends in last volume

DANIEL PLAINWAY OR THE HOLIDAY HAUNTING OF THE MOOSEPATH LEAGUE By Van Reid, Viking-Penguin, New York, 385 pages, hardcover, $24.95.

The Moosepath League ends its first year of existence solving the problem of Bird. The young orphan boy briefly crossed the members’ path in their first adventure during the summer of 1896 and was the intense focus of their foray into autumnal exploits in the second. Those daring seasonal escapades were related in “Cordelia Underwood or The Marvelous Beginnings of the Moosepath League” and “Mollie Peer or The Underground Adventure of the Moosepath League” by bookseller-turned-novelist Van Reid of Edgecomb.

Sadly, this is the last Moosepathian tale that will be presented to the public for some time. The League’s chairman, Tobias Walton, his erstwhile companion Sundry Moss and the hapless but full-of-heart trio of Eagleton, Ephram and Thump have been sent on a well-deserved vacation while their creator Reid mines a different century with his creative juices.

Before moving on to other fictional pursuits, however, the creator of this Dickensian trilogy does manage to tie up all of the plot lines he dangled across pages for readers. Reid also teases fans, offering a few tidbits that could serve as fodder for later Moosepath sagas. The writer truly hits his stride in the latest book.

Spared the exposition required of the first and devoid of the many tangents that bogged down the plot of the second, “Daniel Plainway” glides along like one of the many sleighs in which his characters travel – “skimming over the snow like a coaster.”

The tragic tale of Bird’s true identity and his lineage is the focus of “Daniel Plainway,” a winter adventure that begins with Thanksgiving and ends at the turn of the new year. Bird, briefly seen in “Cordelia Underwood,” is rescued from pirates in “Mollie Peer.” Daniel Plainway, the namesake of the new book, is a Hiram lawyer and the man who comes forward to unravel Bird’s sad past and secures his future.

“A waif, a ragamuffin, four or five years old, his clothes barely holding together” is how the boy without a past or Christian name, is described. Saved and adopted (although not legally) by farmer and baseball star Wyckford O’Hearn in “Mollie Peer,” Bird lives with his rescuer’s family in Veazie as “Daniel Plainway” opens. Quickly, the child has settled into the routine of farm life, spending much of his time with the O’Hearns’ son-in-law Ephias. Such routine is one thing that seemed painfully absent from the little boy’s short life before he was snatched from his captors in a dramatic shootout at Fort Edgecomb.

“Perhaps it wasn’t so strange that Bird could enjoy the morning chores with Ephias, … neither of them ever said very much. Ephias’ lack of words, however was the weight of rocky fields and broken fences; Bird’s silences were bright, the silences of someone who truly listens, like that of a man in a bird-filled wood. Bird followed Ephias, and Skinny [the dog] waddled after Bird; they were an odd trio.”

Another odd trio introduced in “Daniel Plainway” is the Dash-It-All Boys. Durwood, Waverley and Brink generally are on their way to or from an illegal tavern when they stumble across the Moosepathians. These three witless wonders make Eagleton, Ephram and Thump look like geniuses. Yet, whenever these six young men’s paths cross, they immediately become ensnarled in some hysterical misadventure.

The best of these exploits takes place one afternoon in Hallowell when the two clubs face each other in a snowball fight described by Reid as if he was relaying a fracas from the Civil War, without the bloody casualties, of course. The author said he based the account on a similar one he’d read about in one of the many histories of Maine communities he used to research life here during the 1890s. “The Battle of the Smoking Pine” is a ripsnorter of a contest and one of most memorable episodes set down in Moosepath history.

While Bird’s story is wrought with all the pathos Charles Dickens invested in Oliver Twist, it is the private lives of Reid’s recurring characters that seduce readers. We hurtle through the predictably sad saga of Bird’s parentage because we must find out if Mr. Walton at last will make his feelings known to Miss McCannon and what she will answer when he does.

“Daniel Plainway” is at once a joy and sorrow for those devoted to the escapades as well as misadventures of the Moosepath League. This is the best-written of the trilogy and the one that holds most true to the formula set forth by the master Dickens, whom Reid so humbly seeks to emulate.

No matter what Reid chooses to write next, he has opened publishers’ eyes to the possibility, both literary and financial, that a novel can succeed without focusing on sex and violence. While stylistically his work may be imitative of Dickens, Reid is offering a charming alternative to the fare that graces the best-seller lists these days.

Mr. Walton, Sundry Moss, Eagleton, Ephram and Thump may lie dormant in their creator’s brain, but they rest lovingly in readers’ hearts embraced by the hope there are more adventures yet to come.