A Dream of Steam

Barry debuts with a clever tale inspired by the true story of a sawmill heist in northern Michigan. In August 1891, William McGrath, operator of McGrath Brothers Lumber Company on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, convinces his brother, Thomas, a ship captain, to invest in upgrades to a steamship and steam-powered mill equipment. William’s hopes to revitalize the sawmill are compromised by John Fitzpatrick, an unscrupulous employee of the Industrial Bank of Detroit, from whom they borrowed the investment capital. Fitzpatrick, the bank president’s son-in-law, has been embezzling to fuel his poker habit. Meanwhile, Thomas tries to steady his brother from heartbreak over his ex-wife Carmina, who left him three years earlier, and who William imagines seeing on the street. After Fitzpatrick revokes the loan, having dug himself deeper into his own problems, the McGraths’ business is in sudden jeopardy, and the brothers resort to desperate measures to save the mill. The impassioned narrative is colored by evocative prose (“night began to paint itself onto the cityscape, softly daubing darkness into twilit corners and alleys, and around buildings made vacant until morning”), and Barry’s integration of different plot threads is impressive. This is a solid debut. (Self-published)