Peter Stephen Benton
THE BOOKS
Coming & Going
Within the pages of Coming and Going, five exceedingly entertaining and exciting stories explore relationships between men and women; each tale spiced with varying flavors of mystery, intrigue, and passion. In “The Village,” the narrator, accompanied by his wife, visits a living museum depicting an early nineteenth century New England town where he encounters an old, but certainly not forgotten lover. “Room 24” finds happily married Brian Winslow unknowingly transported to the Battle of Concord in April of 1775 where he is inexplicably attracted to the affections of a hauntingly familiar woman.
Beyond the Blue Serarade
A jukebox full of memories embellishes the story of Barry Parker, a young attorney whose career in the late 1970s is on the rise. Coming from a large New York City law firm where he specializes in insurance law, Parker joins the rapidly growing Patriot Insurance Company in Hartford, Connecticut. Having relocated his family to the Hartford area, the adoring father of two young sons faces several challenges—the demands of his new position as deputy corporate counsel, a growing estrangement from his wife, and an irrepressible attraction to a beautiful, single co-worker.
Brownstone & Ivory
In the East Village of a small New England town during the 1890s, Jean Blouin's only teenage aspiration is to become a stonecutter like his father and grandfather before him; Madeline "Maddy" Smith is six years older and an accomplished pianist from a prestigious West Village family who discovers his raw musical and artistic talents. Amid the unprecedented changing times of the era, teacher and student become lovers and find themselves in a forbidden relationship that becomes intertwined with class struggle and turmoil escalating between the two very disparate villages of Masacksic, Massachusetts.