Two local authors are capturing moments of American transformation in their latest works, though separated by six decades and vastly different approaches to storytelling. William Boardman’s latest political analysis examines the current Trump administration’s impact on American democracy, while mystery novelist Sarah Stewart Taylor transports readers to 1960s Vermont in her second book featuring detective Franklin Warren and intelligence operative-turned-widow Alice Bellows.
Circling the Drain
Boardman’s latest work, “Circling the Drain: Trump’s Assault on America,” published by Toronto-based Yorkland Publishing, focuses on what he describes as an unprecedented assault on American democratic institutions. The 332-page book emerged from his conviction that the constitutional crisis began on Day One of Trump’s current term.
“[Trump] just asserted the right to rewrite the Constitution, all by himself and issued a whole lot of executive orders, many of which were illegal,” Boardman, a Woodstock resident, explained during a phone interview with the Standard this week.
The veteran reporter, who moved to Vermont in 1971, brings decades of journalistic experience to his analysis. After working as a reporter and editor, Boardman served as an elected non-lawyer judge for 20 years and spent 10 years writing articles warning of American decline for Reader Supported News.
“Circling the Drain” dissects what Boardman called Trump’s “deluge of lies, criminality, cruelty, and ultimate aim: to replace America’s 250-year-old democracy with autocratic rule.” The book analyzes three key events to illustrate broader patterns: the Oval Office meeting where Ukrainian President Zelensky was “ambushed by Trump and his cabinet and sent packing,” Trump’s virtual State of the Union speech about America’s “golden age,” and his address to the Justice Department that preceded arrests of a congresswoman and a judge. Boardman argued these events demonstrate the “chaos and immorality” of current American foreign policy and domestic governance.
Hunter’s Heart Ridge
Meanwhile, Hartland author Sarah Stewart Taylor is exploring an earlier era of American upheaval in “Hunter’s Heart Ridge,” the second book in her Upper Valley mystery series set in 1965 Vermont. This sequel to last summer’s “Agony Hill” continues the adventures of Boston cop-turned-Vermont State Police detective Franklin Warren and his neighbor, Alice Bellows, in the fictional town of Bethany.
Taylor, who has been writing mystery novels for 22 years, chose the mid-1960s setting because “This period of the mid-’60s in Vermont is when a lot of things about the state were changing. It really was this period of transition.”
The author weaves real historical changes into her fiction: the construction of Interstates 89 and 91, school consolidations, legislative reforms, and the broader national context of the Vietnam War and Civil Rights Movement. Her fictional Bethany, Vermont, draws inspiration from multiple Upper Valley towns, including Woodstock, Chester, Windsor, and South Royalton. “It’s kind of a mash-up of different places,” Taylor explained, creating a setting that feels authentically Vermont while allowing narrative freedom.
Both books are available now. Boardman’s “Circling the Drain” retails for $24.99 and can be purchased directly from Yorkland Publishing at yorklandpublishing.com, as well as on Amazon and in bookstores. Taylor’s works are available at Upper Valley bookstores, with signed copies at many locations, including Yankee Bookshop and Norwich Bookstore.
For readers seeking escape into mystery and historical fiction, Taylor’s “Hunter’s Heart Ridge” offers the comfort of familiar Vermont landscapes wrapped in 1960s intrigue. Those looking for contemporary political analysis will find Boardman’s unflinching examination of current American democracy both challenging and urgent.
For more on this, please see our August 21 edition of the Vermont Standard.
