(Release date: October 24, 2023 from Regal House Publishing)
With the Spanish flu pandemic on the rise, a former gold rush town—once the largest city in the Pacific Northwest—is threatened with extinction via eminent domain should their population fall below 125 citizens. To save their homes, former madam Maude Dollarhyde, her mixed-race grand-daughter, Bountiful, and their fellow council members agree to sell four abandoned mansions for a penny apiece if the buyers will stay in town long enough to be counted in the 1920 census. Soon an eclectic cast of newcomers arrives, including a New York actor and his questionably-familial family; a lawyer with an agoraphobic wife, mute son, and austere nanny; six excommunicated Mormons; and the great-nephew of the town’s hated former boss. As real estate developer and politician Gerald Dredd plots to foil the council’s plan, the new families move in and knock over the first domino in a row that includes three romances, twelve sticks of dynamite, an unintentionally hilarious community theater production, an investigation by a Chicago insurance detective, and last of all, murder!
Regal House Publishing
10/24/2023
2023 Semifinalist: Clue Book Awards
2023 Semifinalist: Laramie Book Awards
2023 Short list: M&M Book Awards
2023 Long list: Mark Twain Book Awards
★★★★★ “…a charming historical novel wherein lovable townspeople rally to save their home.” Michele Sharpe, Foreword Reviews
★★★★★ “Full of heart, humor, and suspense, Steven Mayfield’s THE PENNY MANSIONS is a beautiful and multifaceted piece of fiction that is expertly rendered at every turn.” Kara Dennison, Indie Reader
★★★★ “Readers will love the colorful characters who fill Paradise…” Chanticleer Book Reviews
“…a charming piece of historical fiction delving into the life and death struggle of a small town in the early twentieth century.” Philip Zozzaro, U.S. Review (Recommended)
“In The Penny Mansions, Steven Mayfield gives the history of the American West a good, hard shake and what falls out is an antic tale of small-town intrigue featuring, among other things, a homicidal dwarf, a rope-twirling child genius, a troupe of double-crossing thespians, and a town full of lovable eccentrics. Move over Mark Twain, Steven Mayfield is gaining on you.”—Michael Bourne, author of Blithedale Canyon, contributing editor to Poet & Writers
“Mayfield is a yarn-spinner extraordinaire, a literary hypnotist, your maître d’ of immeasurable reading pleasures. Just crack these pages and see!”—M. Allen Cunningham, author of Q&A
“Steven Mayfield has done it again! Like his 2020 novel, Treasure of the Blue Whale, The Penny Mansions magically evokes an entire town replete with characters as delightfully quirky and vivid as those we find in the best tradition of tongue-in-cheek American literature. With empathy and humor, a keen eye for detail, and a beautifully tuned ear, Mayfield’s narrative grabs the reader from the start and doesn’t let go.”—Barbara Quick, award-winning poet and author of Vivaldi’s Virgins and What Disappears
“A Dickensian romp set in the early twentieth-century American West, Steven Mayfield’s The Penny Mansions breathes life into a colorful gallery of rogues and dreamers, of scoundrels and heroes. Echoes of modern-day corruption and skullduggery are balanced against a satisfyingly old-fashioned storytelling voice. Reminiscent of the big-hearted novels of John Irving, you’ll find yourself rooting for the lovable and plucky residents of Paradise, Idaho who go to extraordinary lengths to save their town…and each other.”—Phillip Hurst, author of Regent’s of Paris, Whiskey Boys, and The Land of Ale and Gloom
“Steven Mayfield is a natural, old-school storyteller and The Penny Mansions is a yarn spun by a writer at the top of his craft. Replete with a villain named Dredd, a protagonist named Bountiful, and a “vole-like” attorney named Mole, Mayfield’s Twain-in-cheek mix of history, humor, mayhem, and romance satisfies all the appetites. Paradise, Idaho may not precisely live up to its name, but there’s definitely gold in them thar pages.”—David R. Roth, award-winning author of The Femme Fatale Hypothesis
“Heartbreaking, heartwarming and hilarious. Set in the early 20th century, The Penny Mansions is brimming with evocative characters, rich historical detail, and gothic chills. Enter the village of Paradise, Idaho, and hold onto your hat (with the hand that’s not eagerly turning pages). This wild and wonderful community is about to battle catastrophe, villainy, and intrigue with all the competing heroics, conflicted loyalties, and quirky mischief it can muster. With surprises at every turn, this smart and funny novel hits all the high notes.” —Shirley Reva Vernick, award-winning author of Ripped Away and The Sky We Shared.
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Prologue
Goldstrike crouched at the edge of the stream for a dip, after- ward giving the ice-cold, murky water in his pan a good swirl before picking out the larger rocks the way Old Butch taught him when Goldstrike was a pup and just starting out.
Don’t shake it. That gold be heavy, boy. It’ll settle if you be patient. Don’t shake it back into the creek.
The stream lapped at the toes of his boots as the old pros- pector gently swirled, muddy water sloshing over the lip of the pan to reveal more and more sediment at the bottom.
Ya don’t wanna take an hour. I seen tenderfoots pan an hour to come away with a couple o’ flakes. A man’s time is worth somethin’.
Shortly after arriving in Paradise, Idaho, in 1865, fresh from his time with the Maine 11th in the War Between the States, seventeen-year-old Goldstrike had partnered up with Old Butch, a veteran of both the California and Pike’s Peak gold rushes. Old Butch’s knees and back were shot and he offered young Goldstrike an equal share of his claim on Mores Creek in exchange for all the work and a third of the yield. Butch was a cranky old fart but had a soft heart and taught his protégé how to pan and dredge, how to snare game to keep them fed, and when to shut up and listen if an old man had a story to tell.
Goldstrike continued to swirl, allowing water to spill over the sloped edge of his tin. A few grains of gold gleamed in the mud and sand. He touched them, the tiny flakes sticking to his finger.
“Crissakes,” he muttered, emptying his sample into the stream and then repeating the process once, twice, a third time. “Fer crissakes,” he repeated, dropping the pan. He sat on the bank, oblivious to the cold water that seeped through the seat of his faded dungarees. Mores Creek was in its spring phase, wider and faster than it would be in less than two weeks. Diffident rapids ran at the center and the pan bobbed along gently at first, edging farther and farther into the stream. Suddenly, the gurgling current swept it up, knocking it into a smooth boulder, careening it into another. Then it was gone, swallowed by the bubbling water. Goldstrike stood and walked away.
“She’s dried up,” he said to no one, because no one had been his only partner since Old Butch died. It was 1890, twenty years since the peak days of the Bogus Basin gold rush and nearly thirty years before Paradise, Idaho, would have to fight for its life or become just another ghost town.
