"....delightfully implausible Dickensian adventures [in 19th Century Maine]. The most imaginative and outrageous in the series thus far. It would be a crime and a sin, and just plain un-neighborly to miss it." —The Kirkus Review of Books

"An amiable, richly populated first novel...that should soothe even the twitchiest reader.... Diffuse and leisurely, the novel seems designed for long afternoons in a hammock...Reid's gazillion characters sparkle." —New York Times Book Review

"Reminiscent of John Irving at his hilarious best...a charming, old-fashioned romp through Victorian New England." —Boston Herald

"Nothing passes idle hours in lazy summer days better than an old-fashioned tall tale. Whatever the season, readers will enjoy Van Reid's debut novel and its collection of eccentric Yankees... Reid's story offers a lemonade-at-the-fair freshness that will delight readers of all ages." —The Christian Science Monitor

"Mollie Peer is great fun--it's much ado about nothing, set in Victorian New England." —The New York Times Book Review, Betsy Groban

" A wonderful successor to Reid's Cordelia Underwood (1998), and the second in a trilogy-in-progress that sparkles with neo-Dickensian comedy, romance, and melodrama." —From Kirkus Reviews

"An affectionate homage to Charles Dickens's masterpiece by the first-time novelist Van Reid...[with] adventures and misadventures galore... If the next installment resembles this amiable Dickensian romp then it will prove, to quote Mr. Pickwick himself, 'delightful - throughly delightful!' " —The Cleveland Plain Dealer

"It's refreshing to read a story with no sex (just a little romance), hardly any violence, and absolutely no naughty words. Recommended." —Library Journal

"A decidedly entertaining read... This Maine native writes with such authenticity about the turn of the century one wonders if he's not a time-traveler.... Ultimately, how the pieces fit together doesn't much matter because the pieces themselves are so funny and so crisply written and so Maine.... Old-fashioned, rollicking good fun." —Concord Sunday Monitor

"Hilarious... Van Reid's love of New England lore and his ability to incorporate historic sites and facts into an imaginative confection leave the reader eager for the next installments." —Publishers Weekly

"Reading Van Reid's first novel, Cordelia Underwood, is a little like moving to a small town where everyone knows everybody else and has for generations." —Amazon.com

"Reid's expert appropriation of the benign world of Charles Dickens continues in this third volume of his richly entertaining saga (Cordelia Underwood, 1998; Mollie Peer, 1997). Reid really has mastered Dickens's techniques of cross-plotting and creating narrative echoes that function as both foreshadowing and revelation--not to mention comic characters so vivid and heartwarming you wish their crazily entangled stories would never end." —From Kirkus Reviews