Back Bay

Written by William Martin

Narrated by John Pruden

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

“A rip-roaring page turner. A perfect read!” —Boston Globe

Meet the Pratt clan. Driven men. Determined women. Through six turbulent generations, they would pursue a lost Paul Revere treasure. And turn a family secret into an obsession that could destroy them. Here is the novel that launched William Martin’s astonishing literary career and became an instant bestseller. From the grit and romance of old Boston to exclusive—and dangerous—Back Bay today, this sweeping saga paints an unforgettable portrait of a powerful dynasty beset by the forces of history...and a heritage of greed, lust, murder and betrayal.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio
• Release date: Oct 22, 2019
• ISBN: 9781799750987

William Martin

WILLIAM MARTIN is the New York Times bestselling author of over a dozen novels, an award-winning PBS documentary on the life of George Washington, and a cult-classic horror film, too. In novels like Back Bay, City of Dreams, The Lost Constitution, The Lincoln Letter, and Bound for Gold, he has told stories of the great and the anonymous of American history, and he's taken readers from the deck of the Mayflower to 9/11. His work has earned him many accolades and honors, including the 2005 New England Book Award, the 2015 Samuel Eliot Morison Award, and the 2019 Robert B. Parker Award. He and his wife live near Boston, where he serves on the boards of several cultural and historical institutions, and he has three grown children.

Reviews for Back Bay

[wareagle78 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I have enjoyed the later books in the Peter Fallon series, but have only just found book 1. The story was fast paced and, despite its length, kept me engaged throughout. Reading the series in backwards order, I was surprised at Peter's beginnings and crisis of confidence. Beyond that, it was all I could have hoped. Martin does a great job with historic detective-work genre, and makes the American past - its people and its places and its events - completely accessible to the reader.

[bexaplex · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A history graduate student unearths a clue to a long-buried treasure and is sucked into a race to find it, along with a disintegrating Boston Brahmin family, a ruthless nouveau riche businessman with a personal vendetta, and an alcoholic journalist. The setting of the book jumps around from the American Revolutionary War to the present (1970s), spinning a tale of a Paul Revere tea set made from confiscated Royalist gold and silver given to George Washington, stolen from the White House, and wreaking tragedy on the family that sees its salvation in it.I wasn't feeling the romance between Peter and Evangeline, but the book was written in the 70s. I guess we're supposed to believe Peter loves her just because she's beautiful. And she drives a Porsche.All in all, it's a good historical page-turner.

[ames3473 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I am really loving this book! I am already half through it & just started it tonight!! It's about a prominent New England family who holds the secret to a missing Paul Revere treasure. I was surprised to find out this book was published in 1979..long before all the other books of a similar genre. It's hard to put down! Can't wait to read the rest of the series!Read this book in 2 days & loved it! Can't wait to read the next in the series, Harvard Yard. I had a hard time putting this one down!

[livana_2 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I read in one of the reviews that you couldn't really appreciate this book unless you were familiar with the locations listed in it. I have to agree with that. Living around Boston, I know where Back Bay, South Boston, Roxbury, Bunker Hill and all these others places are, and that makes the story so much more enjoyable.I was actually seating in a bus at Sullivan Square reading about the battle of Bunker Hill - I almost could see the monument from where I was.I really enjoyed the plot line about the Revere Tea Set. I was not so familiar with Revere's work and that got me wanting to go to the Museum of Fine Art.The book is quite long, however, and some of the details of the story could have been cut. Otherwise, I strongly recommend it.

[thornton37814 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I loved the historical part of this novel, but the modern parts had so much bad language that I finally gave up trying to read it. That's really sad because I love books with a Boston setting. However, I'm not sure that I want to try to read other titles by this author when he finds it necessary to overuse bad language.

[kylekatz · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

1979. This was well-plotted and suspenseful with but journeyman prose. Adequate. Cool Boston stuff though. Everybody was trying to kill everyone else all through the whole thing. It's kind of crazy.