Alan Geik

Glenfiddich Inn Alan Geik

Glenfiddich Inn is a novel set in WWI era Boston and New York. It's a new age of breathtaking inventions, the first silent movies, art and a changing morality-all unfolding as the most disastrous war in history slowly creeps across the Atlantic Ocean. Two years before Glenfiddich Inn begins, The Titanic sinks in the North Atlantic. A new technology on board, wireless Morse Code, sends out SOS to nearby ships and miraculously passengers survive to tell their stories that are retold to this day. Otherwise, The Titanic would have been just one more ship "lost at sea."Experimenters quickly moved on to the next logical step-wireless audio transmissions. The possibility that a New England farmhouse several miles away could perhaps, receive a transmission of a human voice, or even a musical performance, on a cold winter's night, thrilled Helen and Margaret, two of the female characters of the novel, who are dedicated to the advancement of this technology. This magical force is given the name "radio" and, as Helen and Margaret believe, it is destined to change the world. While they clearly see the future of radio, neither can see the adventures and challenges that will embrace them as radio became reality. Babe Ruth arrives in Boston in August 1914, the same month as the first cannon shots of the still distant war in Europe are heard. He becomes an immediate sensation and Byron Townsend, a sports writer for his family's well respected Boston newspaper, understands that this man-child will change not just the face of baseball, but of America as well. Byron's dream however is more dangerous than a baseball game-he needs to go to the Western Front in France to cover the unfolding war which he knows will be the defining moment for his generation. The Lusitania is torpedoed by a German U-Boat within sight of the English coast on May 7, 1915. Two of the Townsend family members are on board and their fate is unknown for days that seemed like weeks.