Fiction author Robert Scott (http://www.robscottbooks.com/) has written a brief essay that’s not only a very generous review, but that also conveniently name checks some of the material I used for the backstory:

“American Craftsmen” by Tom Doyle

Robert Scott

Tom Doyle is smarter than I am. It’s not even close. He’s easily got me by two or three touchdowns. I don’t mind, however, because reading through Tom’s debut novel, “American Craftsmen,” I had the great pleasure of mining for dozens of deftly-masked references to American literary history. And while one doesn’t have to be abundantly familiar with the works of Edgar Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne to enjoy Doyle’s rollercoaster amalgam of dark fantasy and black-ops, reviewing that high school literature notebook we all have stashed in our basement will help readers appreciate Doyle’s innovative storytelling.

For starters, I’d recommend re-reading Poe’s “Masque of the Red Death” and “The Fall of the House of Usher,” along with Hawthorne’s “The House of the Seven Gables” and “Endicott and the Red Cross.” While you’re at it, check out Poe’s “Ligeia,” and maybe a handful of Romantic poems from Longfellow or Holmes, just to establish a foundation for Doyle’s groovy references to the great (for us geeks anyway) literary rift that emerged between the Romantic scribblers, “Frogpondian” Transcendentalists and the Dark Romantics, like Hawthorne and Poe, whose personal and family struggles led to the body of literature Doyle references in “American Craftsmen.”

Okay, you don’t have to re-read all of them. Google a couple; then get back to Doyle’s book. You’ll be glad you did.

Sprinkled generously throughout the breakneck swash & buckle, Doyle leaves bread crumbs to guide insightful readers through the early 1800s. They’re everywhere: Poe’s crack in the Usher house, the claustrophobia of Madeline’s crypt, Prince Prospero’s uninvited guest, Ligeia’s curious emaciated beauty, even the W an embarrassed Hawthorne adopted to distance himself from his Salem legacy.

Doyle could have offered up “American Craftsmen” without these historic and literary bread crumbs, and the story would still have been a wild ride from Rhode Island to Appalachia to the hidden sub-basements of the Pentagon. Rife with zombies, witchcraft, and precision incursions into hostile LZs, “American Craftsmen” doesn’t disappoint readers hoping for an engaging adventure. With the references, however, Doyle’s debut comes into focus as something genuinely innovative. I’ve read it twice and need to have another go just to feel as if I’ve picked up all the sly, surgical references that make “Craftsmen” more than just a dark urban fantasy. Tom Doyle’s captured one of the most interesting rifts in American literary history, and he’s done it in a compelling style that will appeal to history buffs and fantasy junkies alike. I’m anxiously awaiting volume II.