"Lindberg tells this tale...with a novelist's skill in creating dramatic characters and poetic settings."
- Joan Baum, WSHU-FM
Scandal on Plum Island tells the tragic story of Major Benjamin M. Koehler, a distinguished Army officer who was blindsided by charges of homoerotic behavior in 1914. "A couple of officers whom Ben has had occasion to correct have gotten a dozen or more soldiers to swear to a lot of lies," wrote Koehler's educated sister, who lived with him on Plum Island, NY, where Ben served as commander of Fort Terry, a 700-soldier coast defense post.
Newspapers called the case "sensational" and covered it daily, even though the proceedings were held in secret, "but it's the larger theme that distinguishes Lindberg's fascinating book, a cultural history of masculinity at the turn of the 20th century," says Joan Baum in a review for NPR station WSHU-FM. Male angst and malice united in Ben Koehler's prosecution, in ways still playing out today in the misunderstandings that divide our country.
Although Scandal on Plum Island deals with serious themes, it "reads like a legal thriller," as Nelson DeMille put it.
I hope you like it.