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The Old Mermaid's Tale
by Kathleen Valentine

Before the Edmund Fitzgerald there was the Carl D. Bradley, the Willaim B. Davok, the Betty Hedger, the American Sailor and many more...

In 1959 the St. Lawrence Seaway opened to international commerce creating a problem for seaport towns bordering the Great Lakes. Within the first year over a thousand barges and tankers from all over the world arrived at these seaports to unload, re-outfit and reload. While waiting, the crew, that had been at sea for weeks, went ashore looking for fun and companionship. Restaurants, bars, pool halls, rooming houses, tattoo parlors, and rumors of other - less savory - forms of entertainment sprang up in the blocks surrounding the commercial docks. Those parts of town acquired a deservedly terrible reputation.

When Clair Wagner begins college in Port Presque Isle she dreams of meeting a "handsome sailor with the constellations of the Northern Seas in his eyes". Into her life comes Pio, a beautiful Italian fisherman, who dreams of life on the big lakes under the aurora borealis. She meets Gary, the dashing son of a wealthy shipping magnate, who introduces her to Canal Street where she encounters The Old Mermaid Inn, a tavern that, as Gary tells her, "deserves its reputation".

But The Old Mermaid Inn, with its giant painting of a seductive mermaid, is home to some fascinating people including Tessie, the owner and original mermaid, and the intriguing Baptiste, a Breton mariner injured in a shipwreck, who earns his living as a musician.

With Pio, Clair discovers passion, with Gary she gains entry into the world of the commercial waterfront, and with Baptiste she discovers all-consuming love. But as her relationship with Baptiste grows she discovers he is far more complex and mysterious than she could imagine. He has secrets and his secrets will alter her life forever.

READ THE FIRST CHAPTER

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

A beautiful story, beautifully told.
Susan Oleksiew, author of A Murderous Innocence

A timeless lovestory rich in maritime lore.
BookLovers Alert 2007 Rising Star Nominee

I gobbled up this novel. It is enticing in the style of Fielding. The details are fresh and ring true. Lavish and exuberant, it keeps the reader interested from beginning to end. - Ingeborg Lauterstein, author of Vienna Girl and The Water Castle

Bravo! This is good, very good. These characters are people who will always live inside of me. I lingered near the end of the book, not wanting it to end. I love the way the story plays with fantasy and reality. Myth and the real. There is wonder and awe and the all-compellingness of love. Here's to The Old Mermaid's Tale, may it enliven the hearts and minds of many, many reader, for many, many years to come . . . -Lawrence Jordan, Lawrence Jordan Literary Agency

Settings described so well you can see, smell, and taste, characters so real you already know them, every day lives woven into a larger story of a way of life now gone, and so much fun to read you can hardly put it down. The love story around which everything else hangs is moving and makes you wish you could love like that. This book takes you into a world you wish you could visit, just to see the place and meet the characters. --- Ray in Pennsylvania

The Old Mermaid's Tale has just the right ingredients for a great summer read -- situations you can identify with, romance as sweet as the scent of honeysuckle that reminds you of your own tender coming of age (as it was or you wished it had been) and a distinct sense of place that's unfamiliar and fascinating. The story concerns Clair, a blossoming young woman setting off for college equipped with a thirst for adventure and the dream of a consuming love affair. She finds both along the rough, bustling Lake Erie waterfront of the early sixties. The characters are larger than life, the love scenes are luscious and the ending is happy in an unpredictable, real-life way. I read Mermaid's Tale lying in the hot sun at the beach and became so engrossed I kept forgetting to turn over. --- Sunshine (USA)

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. The historical background information is fascinating and the characters are rich and intriguing. Very hard to put down. I highly recommend this book. --- S. Kimmel (Texas USA)

The Old Mermaid's Tale is an engrossing, captivating, moving story of growth, sorrow, joy, love, loss and second chances. I could not put it down. The descriptions are rich and vivid, from the full busyness of daily life to the quiet yet spellbinding moments when Clair is contemplating nature. Clair's progress from girl to woman is told with nuance, depth and compassion. Baptiste is the most hypnotic, sexy, unforgettable male character I've seen in a long time. His mystery and dark charisma draw you in, and yet up close, you discover his all-too-human, aching vulnerability. All the characters are fully alive and they really held my interest. I cared about all of them and what happened to them. A wonderful read that I strongly recommend.
--- Clare Higgins "higgeroo" (Gloucester, MA)

While reading The Old Mermaid's Tale, I truly left the world I live in and went to Port Presque Isle in the 60's. Kathleen Valentine writes with a sure and loving hand of place; she brings this Great Lakes town to vivid life,as well as the farm town her main character escapes.

Even better than the sense of place is her way with characters. The loving Clair, the charismatic Baptiste, the tragic Pio, the sadder-but-wiser Tessie and many other secondary characters are all fascinating in their flawed humanity. Their lives and fates ring true, even when the results are not what one would expect or even hope for. This book, ultimately, is a most satisfying novel of recent history and of healing love beyond understanding. --- Rockport Mo "maureenmo3" (Rockport, MA USA)

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