A review by sarahmkennedy32109
Back Bay by William Martin

3.0

My reading road trip around the US continued on to Boston, Massachusetts with the novel Back Bay by William Martin. Originally published in 1979, this novel is a fun “national treasure” type mystery story that spans generations of the fictional Pratt family, some of the most influential founders and shipping moguls of Boston. Beginning in the 1780s with the patriarch of the family being present when President Washington is presented with a Paul Revere tea set and continuing on to the 1970s when the modern day Pratts are trying to find this tea set that has gone missing when the British burned Washington DC in the War of 1812. Spanning two centuries this novel moves back and forth from the 1970s into history, telling the stories of each layer of this family tree and the parts they play in this tea set being hidden. It was a fascinating look at this neighborhood in Boston, the Back Bay, which was really a mud flat that was filled in with miles and miles of dirt and then built upon—it’s brownstones are still some of the best examples of 19th century architecture we have in America. I will say this novel was fine, not my new favorite and it felt really long—at 544 pages I felt like some of the stories could have been shortened. It’s the beginning of a series of novels that I probably won’t read but for a book set in Massachusetts this one was worth it—history, architecture, mystery and a national treasure.