New Jersey Books

Excellent vintage photos. See how nice Jersey City used to be before all of the buildings with historical value were torn down and replaced with cheaply made houses and apartment buildings.

Although this doesn't have an awful lot of new data for one who has studied this unit, this puts it in sequential order and does clear up some questions. A Good Read

See the booklist summary above.

This latest suspense yarn from Lysaght involves multiple genres. From international terrorism and arms trading to police procedural to Russian and Italian mafias. It's kind of a complicated story (a lot of characters) so if you lay the book down and don't pick it up for a week you'll probably forget who's who. I read it in two days and must say I really enjoyed it. Not a dull moment. Violence, action, vengeance, and some humorous dialogue drive this suspense-ridden novel to a satisfying conclusion. If you want to spend some of your leisure time with some exciting fast-paced reading, this novel will not disappoint you.

Highly recommended

The LV became part of Conrail in 1976, but it still lingers in the memory of many railfans. This work is a geographically-arranged summary of motive power and operations on the Valley. The color photographs are well-chosen, beautifully printed, and thoughtfully captioned. This is not a complete history of the LV, but will be of great use to the model railroader

The book is about a famous baby being kidnapped and how for years the police tried to blame it on someone. It is also about how hard it is to know who the real kidnappers are versus who are just people who want some money. This is a tradgic case not only for the parents and everyone involved but also for a man who was wrongly executed.I really enjoyed reading this book, the author really laid out this book well. This book was easy to understand and follow.It is really a book worth getting and reading.

Arthur Lefkowitz has produced a fascinating, well researched and accessible narrative of the events relating to the retreat of George Washington from New York and across central New Jersey, to the relative safety of the western (Pennsylvania) shore of the Delaware River. These events of the fall of 1776 represented a critical period in the American Revolution, with the continental army demoralized and in disarray; had the British aggressively pressed their advantage, they could have destroyed the army, possibly providing a decisive end to the Revolution. Their failure to overtake and destroy Washington is, from our perspective, a remarkable (and fortunate) occurrence. Mr. Lefkowitz provides not only a continuous narrative of the action and the decisions of the major players, but clearly defines a number of issues for which historians have sought understanding. As a skilled narrator, Lefkowitz weaves various strands so that one can appreciate his evaluation of such issues as the character and education under fire of George Washington during this period, and Washington's ultimate ability to cross the Delaware back into New Jersey on Christmas Eve and to attack the British forces in Trenton and then Princeton. In addition, he provides sketches of major characters and, to the extent possible, minor characters whose letters or journal entries helped provide the primary documents for our understanding. As a resident of central New Jersey, I was struck by the brief and vivid description of various locales, the state of the rural and town economies and people, and his excellent ability to succinctly create a context, both in time and place. Lefkowitz is careful to maintain the narrative flow, placing considerable information - usually quite interesting in its own right - in easily accessed (bottom of each page) footnotes. If I have a quibble, it is that additional maps would have been useful, particularly to those not intimately familiar with New Jersey geography. While, as (merely) an educated layperson, I cannot critically judge the details of Mr. Lefkowitz' scholarship, I found the book fascinating and enlightening - all in just over 150 pages.

Claire Mackenzie leaves her high-powered job with her father's law firm to "pay back" Luke Cabrio who has confessed to a murder. Years ago Luke saved Claire from a gang-rape and she has ached for Luke ever since. Now is her chance to repay the debt. Claire knows Luke could not have committed the murder but he does everything he can to thwart her efforts to help. I have read several of Patricia Coughlin's stories and always come away satisfied.

This is a rather small book. It's only about 4 inches X 6 inches, so keep this in mind when ordering this book (if size is an issue for you).

Anyhow, even though the book is so small, many of the black and white photos (of these gorgeous mansions) are no longer available, publicly, since most of these lovely mansions have been since demolished. Thus, it's always so amazing to see what these huge Estates must have looked like when the Gilded Age was in full swing.

From an historical perspective, I think this book is delightful because of the reason stated in the previous paragraph. If you enjoy Architecture, or the history of Architecture, then this book might please you. I only wish there had been more photos. But as stated above, since these mansions have been gone for so long (and the inheritors have since died), it would probably be hard to find more photos than illustrated in this book. I only give it four stars (not five) due to it's small book size. Also, I give this book four stars because the photos' descriptions could have been a bit more detailed.

This well-written book lacks an index, but lists the people involved. Part I tells about the events of 1922. After the murders no indictments occurred! Part II tells of the events in 1926. A divorce action against the former Hall's maid alleged a pay-off to keep quiet. The NY Daily Mirror publicized this, and NJ Governor Moore ordered a new investigation. Four indictments followed. Part III tells of the five weeks of trial; all were found not guilty. The murders were never solved. In Part IV Kunstler fantasizes about it being a Klan killing. No proof is given, he only argues by analogy. No group of men were seen there. I wonder if this is part of a whitewash? There is no mention of public opinion from these times.

The Reverend Hall married Frances Stevens, 37 years old, a few years before she inherited millions (with her brothers). Around this time Mrs. Eleanor Mills became active in church affairs. Married at 17, perhaps to escape an unhappy home life, she soon had two children. She sought the mirage of happiness in closeness to her minister. But this minister married for money; love was a secondary concern. Their meetings were not secret from their close associates.

On Thursday September 14, 1922 Mrs. Mills read an article justifying divorce for a minister. She cut it out and called Reverend Hall for a meeting; he soon left to meet her. Mrs. Mills boarded a trolley then walked to De Russey's Lane. Reverend Hall left his house by 7:30PM and was seen walking to this location. They were never seen alive again. Saturday morning 9-16-1922 a young couple went for a walk down De Russey's Lane and turned into a grassy path. They found two bodies near a crabapple tree, then ran to Easton Ave to call the police. The missing couple was found.

Four people who lived nearby heard shots or screams around midnight Thursday (p.31). The affair between the minister and the choir singer became public knowledge. Next month they learned of the testimony of the "Pig Woman". While riding a mule to follow a suspected thief, she saw two men and two women arguing near a crabapple tree. There was a shot, and someone fell to the ground. She heard a woman scream, then more shots (p.70). She had tried to tell her story earlier, but was put off (p.72). Detectives accompanied her reconstruction; it checked out.

I believe that Frances, Henry, and Willie went looking for the missing minister, and found them together. Frances asked Edward to kneel and promise to sin no more. Willie, covering him with his pistol, touched it off. They then chose to finish the job (p.29). Future events would tell of witnesses paid to vanish or forget. Who was paid to kill the investigation in 1922? [If they were to find the missing gold watch buried in the Hall's garden we would know the truth.]

I live in Monroe Township and found the local history presented in this book to be interesting. I think it is a must read for our local school children. I would recommend it to anyone who is intereted in the history of his small but growing central NJ town but doubt that it would be of much interest to people from outside this area since it was bbviously written for local appeal.