Robert M. Chute brings us the sequel to Coming Home: A Maine Mystery . In Return to Sender , Melonie Janus thinks she knows who killed her stepbrother and dumped his body into the lake to fake an accident. Jefferson County's Sheriff Dumont and DA Black are stymied by a lack of evidence for arrest and trial. Melonie embarks on a dangerous private voyage, traveling to Wyman Falls at the southern end of a wilderness lake extending north across the Canadian border. Readers of Coming Home will recognize many of the residents of Wyman Falls as they continue their usual (or unusual) activities. Willis Wyman and his steam-powered lake boat, Leland Fogg, a disabled veteran with mathematical and romantic aptitudes, and the obsessive-compulsive Runner Higgens and his dog Whitey play roles in this excellent mystery set in post World War II rural Maine.
About the Author
Robert M. Chute is a native of Naples, Maine and was educated, according to Chute, with varying degrees of success, at Fryeburg Academy, the University of Maine, and Johns Hopkins University. He served in the U.S. Air Force in WWII, in the Aviation Physiology Unit of a Proving Ground Command. He joined the Bates College teaching staff as Chairman of the Biology Department in 1962. Wearing his scientific hat, he wrote Introduction to Biology and Environmental Insight both published by Harper and Row. Always aware of being a steward of our earth, lakes and trees, Chute was instrumental in the formation of COLA, The Congress of Lake Associations, dedicated to the study and protection of Maine lakes. He also served as chair of a state commission concerned with genetic modification of agricultural products. During the 1960s he produced and edited a mimeograph poetry magazine, The Small Pond. Research in and Professing of Biology supported his poetry habit until retirement from Bates College in 1993. He received the Rhine Humanities Council chapbook award for Samuel Sewall Sails for Home and the Beloit Poetry Journal’s Chad Walsh Award for the poem, “Heat Wave in Concord.” Chute was awarded the 2011 Distinguished Achievement Award by the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance. Chute ran as an independent protest candidate for the U. S. House during the Vietnam War and is an active supporter of Veterans for Peace.
Reviews
Chute is a clever, thoughtful writer, creating a story true to the color and atmosphere of rural Maine during the Korean War era, right down to the 1950s-era social taboos of homosexuality and illicit drug use, and the loneliness of fathers away at war in Korea...Chute has a sure hit mystery here. Bill Bushnell, Kennebec Journal
...well-written, generally well-paced book of twists and turns, pleasant good humor and some insight into the nooks and crannies of midcentury life in small-town Maine. While the major strands of the plot come together in the end, a few loose ends imply a third novel in the sequence may be coming. This book makes nice reading on lazy afternoons while you're waiting for the snow to go away.
-Dana Wilde Bangor Daily News
About the Author
Robert M. Chute is a native of Naples, Maine and was educated, according to Chute, with varying degrees of success, at Fryeburg Academy, the University of Maine, and Johns Hopkins University. He served in the U.S. Air Force in WWII, in the Aviation Physiology Unit of a Proving Ground Command. He joined the Bates College teaching staff as Chairman of the Biology Department in 1962. Wearing his scientific hat, he wrote Introduction to Biology and Environmental Insight both published by Harper and Row. Always aware of being a steward of our earth, lakes and trees, Chute was instrumental in the formation of COLA, The Congress of Lake Associations, dedicated to the study and protection of Maine lakes. He also served as chair of a state commission concerned with genetic modification of agricultural products. During the 1960s he produced and edited a mimeograph poetry magazine, The Small Pond. Research in and Professing of Biology supported his poetry habit until retirement from Bates College in 1993. He received the Rhine Humanities Council chapbook award for Samuel Sewall Sails for Home and the Beloit Poetry Journal’s Chad Walsh Award for the poem, “Heat Wave in Concord.” Chute was awarded the 2011 Distinguished Achievement Award by the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance. Chute ran as an independent protest candidate for the U. S. House during the Vietnam War and is an active supporter of Veterans for Peace.
Reviews
Chute is a clever, thoughtful writer, creating a story true to the color and atmosphere of rural Maine during the Korean War era, right down to the 1950s-era social taboos of homosexuality and illicit drug use, and the loneliness of fathers away at war in Korea...Chute has a sure hit mystery here. Bill Bushnell, Kennebec Journal
...well-written, generally well-paced book of twists and turns, pleasant good humor and some insight into the nooks and crannies of midcentury life in small-town Maine. While the major strands of the plot come together in the end, a few loose ends imply a third novel in the sequence may be coming. This book makes nice reading on lazy afternoons while you're waiting for the snow to go away.
-Dana Wilde Bangor Daily News
