Seven Days writers can’t possibly read, much less review, all the books that arrive in a steady stream by post, email and, in one memorable case, as a 116-foot scroll borne on the back of a riderless steed. So this occasional feature is our way of introducing you to a handful of books by Vermont authors. To do that, we contextualize each book just a little and quote a single representative sentence from, yes, page 32. ➆
Dangerous Characters: The Life and Crimes of Williston’s Notorious Outlaw Duo
Elizabeth A. Allen, Emerald Production, 130 pages. $20.
Charlie did not report to his physical examination nor to the war.
In the list of dastardly deeds attributed to Charlie Potter, desertion from military service in the Civil War was among the most benign. He and his wife, Delia, both 19th-century rogues from Williston, racked up a veritable alphabet of criminal activities, including adultery, bribery, counterfeiting, debt evasion, horse poisoning, robbery and the alleged murder, in 1865, of Delia’s adoptive mother, Sally Griswold. Charlie was tried for the killing but acquitted, though an accomplice, John Ward, was convicted and executed. The Potters continued living in the Griswold house and even slept in the bedroom where Sally was killed.
Dangerous Characters, historian Elizabeth A. Allen’s fascinating true-crime tale, is an intriguing look into one of Vermont’s most sensational 19th-century murders and the colorful characters surrounding it. Thoroughly researched and scrupulously footnoted, the book offers a glimpse into Vermont life in the Reconstruction era while also exploring the timeless motivations — desperation, resentment, selfishness and greed — that drive people to violence.
Murder by Algorithm
Douglas Beagley, Reify Publishing, 410 pages. $22.99.
Then we headed out to the marshwalk to see where my friend was killed.
If you were to prompt ChatGPT to write a 400-page mystery influenced in equal measures by Agatha Christie and Douglas Adams, the result might read something like Douglas Beagley’s Murder by Algorithm. That’s not to say the author enlisted AI to pen his debut novel — he explicitly states otherwise in the book’s disclaimer. But this smart, well-paced and occasionally absurd sci-fi murder mystery represents a deft genre synthesis even a sentient robot would enjoy.
Set on an island artists’ colony at some unknown point in the future, Beagley’s whodunit pairs nonbinary alcoholic artist Thackery with Cye-9, a 200-year-old AI detective. As the duo attempts to solve the murder of Thackery’s best friend, the story romps through several genre exercises: buddy comedy, romance, even a touch of Shakespearean tragedy. As Beagley wrangles numerous plot threads that build to a satisfying reveal, he proves as adept a puzzle master as he is a stylist. No AI required.
The Unraveling
Wyn Cooper, White Pine Press, 75 pages. $19.
Matter flings itself outward, / centrifugal force too fierce to contain…
So many things have come undone since Wyn Cooper released his first book of poetry in 1987. “Fun,” a poem in that collection, found eternal life in Sheryl Crow’s sunny-sounding earworm “All I Wanna Do,” earning him a Grammy nomination.
The sun still comes up over Santa Monica Boulevard (a line Cooper didn’t write), but there are foreboding clouds on the horizon in the Halifax poet’s latest book, The Unraveling. “The weathervane spins in uneasy wind” in “Detection”; “They toast their fortunes unaware / the wine’s gone over” in “Soirée.” Some of the fraying seems, of course, political: “the shouts and cries of vulgar crowds / loud as the t-shirts they wear, bright red.” But much of it is personal — the messiness of relationships, grief, a pandemic.
Cooper does find some hope in the darkness, with language urgently economical and sometimes slyly sibilant (“The scene serene despite spite in the air”). But if the downward spiral continues, there’s always drinking beer at noon on Tuesday.
Everything Has Happened
T. Greenwood, Crooked Lane Books, 336 pages. $29.99
Though even as I complained, Trill’s arrival in Quimby had changed everything.
It’s been nearly 40 years since Edie Marshall’s little brother disappeared. She has moved back into her childhood home to care for her widowed, ailing mother. Sleeping in her old bedroom makes time collapse. “I am fifty-five,” she says, “but in this room, I am also six, twelve, seventeen.” One night, someone calls with a tip about her brother’s disappearance, yanking Edie back to 1986, the year she was a high school senior and 9-year-old Charlie never made it home from day camp.
Set in fictional Quimby, Vt., Everything Has Happened is T. Greenwood’s 16th novel and alternates between past and present. Grown-up Edie lives surrounded by many of the same people as adolescent Edie, though roles have changed.
What happened to Charlie appears to be the central question of this dialogue-driven story. But that feeling of being young and old at the same time is a mystery much harder to solve.
Before I Forget
Tory Henwood Hoen, St. Martin’s Press, 274 pages. $29.
I want to say, He doesn’t remember me either, but that’s not a reason to discount him.
In Tory Henwood Hoen’s novel Before I Forget, 27-year-old Cricket intended to help her sister place their dad, who has Alzheimer’s disease, in a nursing home. But she decides instead to become his sole caregiver, abandoning her New York City friends and job with a wellness influencer and moving upstate. Along the way, she must resolve the teenage trauma that made her leave a decade ago.
The book paints a loving portrait of our region, mud season and all. And its takes on caregiving as a source of connection, meaning and purpose — and dementia as a possible window on the supernatural — are both refreshing and tender. But for those who have seen this story play out in real life, Hoen’s version of it is altogether too easy. Cricket’s dad is forgetful but never angry or resistant, and Cricket doesn’t get frustrated with him. Her pain stays in the past, and her approach to managing his dementia only enhances his best qualities. May we all be so lucky.
This article appears in May 27 • 2026.
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