As the autumn shopping season draws to a close, Captain Thomas McGrath steps ashore to help his ambitious brother William rebuild the family sawmill. Despite Thomas's aversion to debt, William convinces him to borrow heavily so they might convert their ailing, water-powered mill to steam. While adapting to the new technology, Thomas finds himself navigating between ax-wielding log pirates, hostile longshoremen, and his brother's obsession with finding his estranged wife.
The newly retooled mill is ramping up lumber production when the winds of fortune turn. Thomas has set sail again when a financial crisis hits, running the brothers afoul of JohnFitzpatrick, a crooked bank officer employed by their lender. Fitzpatrick'scrimes push the McGrath Brothers Lumber Company to the edge of ruin, forcing Thomas to consider a high-risk proposal if he wants to save their livelihood and get out of debt.
Set in 1890s Michigan, ADream of Steam is a story of sailing ships and lumberjacks, hope and disappointment, love and heartbreak, peopled by men and women who take control of their destinies in an era of rapid change.
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[IT WAS PERHAPS a trick of the calender, but as he gazed at it, William McGrath realised he had somehow lost a day]***
(AloftPublishing, 10 December 2018, ebook, 338 pages, copy from the author and voluntarily reviewed)
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This is the author's debut. The book is very slow to start and has sections scattered throughout that I felt were too long and overwhelmed by description. The novel is saved by the fact the story is fascinating and based on fact. I liked the fact the book contains author's notes and a glossary. This added an unexpected depth. I've never read books about sailing or sawmills before so enjoyed reading about something completely new. I struggled with the nautical sections of the book. The glossary helped with this which explained the jargon. However, I felt the author should have been able to to make me understand these sections without the need to refer to a glossary. This was historical fiction, after all, inspired by real events but not a non-fiction book about sailing. The book has a lot of characters. The characters are well-written. However, the POV changes a lot and I struggled to keep a track of who was who. A Dream of Steam is an okay book with a few things that didn't quite gel.
