Читать книгу Death on the Mississippi: The Mark Twain Mysteries #1 - Peter J. Heck - Страница 7

Areader familiar with the writings of Mark Twain will recognize many of the anecdotes and quips herein as being adapted from his work, with due allowance given for Twain’s own intention to entertain or instruct the reader. For instance, Twain’s story of the treasure in Napoleon, Arkansas, which I have borrowed as the “Mc-Guffin” for my plot, can be found in Life on the Mississippi, chapters 30 and 31.1 have taken the liberty of assuming that it was, in fact, a true story rather than a tall tale setting up a comic anticlimax.

The novel is set in the early 1890s, when Twain needed money to pay off his debts in the wake of several bad investments, and might plausibly have gone on the riv-erboat lecture tour described here. But while I have done careful research into the history of the period, and into the biography and personality of my protagonist, the Samuel Clemens/Mark Twain who appears in these pages is a fictional character, and the events of the novel are entirely fictional. And, while Mark Twain wrote more than one detective story of his own, he never, to my knowledge, solved a murder case.

In addition to Mark Twain, a few historical characters are mentioned in passing: Twain’s family, especially his wife, Livy; William Dean Howells, Twain’s editor and friend; Henry H. Rogers, his benefactor; and George Devol, the most notorious of riverboat gamblers. All other characters who appear in the plot of this novel are entirely fictional creations, and should not be mistaken for any actual person, living or dead.

Special thanks are due to George R. R. Martin, for allowing me to tap his riverboat expertise; to Darwin Ortiz, for nineteenth-century gambling lore; to the staff of the Mark Twain House in Hartford, Connecticut; to my agent, Martha Millard; and to my editor, Laura Ann Gilman, whose insight and judgment have been all a first-time novelist could ask. Any weaknesses that remain despite their efforts are entirely my own doing.

Finally, my wife, Jane Jewell, has been a partner and an inspiration throughout the writing of this book. I might have been able to start the book by myself, but without her I doubt I could have finished it.