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Tonight in the Rivers of Pittsburgh
By Brian Lee Weakland
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TONIGHT grabs you at the first sentence and never lets you go. … Only a master journalist can weave together the foibles of human nature – greed, lust and betrayal – into a tightly-written, fast-paced tale of passion, humor, scandal and, ultimately, horror. …
An achievement in misdirection and storytelling.
When Brock Bailey’s limousine crashes through a bridge railing and disappears into Pittsburgh’s murky Monongahela River, the popular Pennsylvania governor is presumed to be dead. Intensive rescue efforts produce four mangled bodies, but the Mon River does not yield a governor. Left behind are a very public and ruthless son, a very private mistress and the prize they both crave: Bailey’s Keystone Oil fortune. The governor’s disappearance becomes an obsession of Bailey’s hometown newspaper editor and a bumbling state police commissioner. What they learn is a Bailey family secret so shocking and devastating that one tries to exploit it and the other hesitates to publish it.
Tonight in the Rivers of Pittsburgh exposes the turmoil and duplicity of Pennsylvania’s political power family – from the heinous kidnapping that propelled Brock Bailey to the governorship, to the forbidden young woman who dominated his hidden life, to his rudderless son, thrust into the political void caused by the governor’s reported demise. The story of Bailey’s legacy winds through the remote Allegheny National Forest, to the State Capitol in Harrisburg, through the Gettysburg Battlefield and Philadelphia and past all whistle-stops in between. Meanwhile, the nation’s most baffling political mystery floats lifelessly down the rivers of Pittsburgh.
ADVANCE PRAISE FOR TONIGHT IN THE RIVERS OF PITTSBURGH
“…A nostalgic portrait of a family’s past that collides violently with its present secrets. Weakland delivers an eloquently-written novel of suspense, political intrigue and romance, sure to shine a national spotlight on his talent as an author of superb fiction.”
–– Ken Gormley, author of the award-winning Archibald Cox: Conscience of a Nation
BRIAN LEE WEAKLAND has received numerous writing awards, including the Keystone Press Award for investigative reporting. He was named Associated Press Community News Reporter of the Year for his feature stories describing Pennsylvania towns, people and landmarks. A graduate of the Penn State University School of Journalism, he has taught college writing courses in journalism and law. He resides in Richmond, Virginia, with his wife and two daughters. Photo at the Jefferson Davis Monument, Richmond, VA, by Sarah Thrower.
BOOK REVIEW
TONIGHT IN THE RIVERS OF PITTSBURGH
(A Novel by Brian Lee Weakland – Word Association Publishers)
By Cyril H. Wecht, M.D., J.D.
Over the past 250 years, the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers to form the Ohio River has provided a strategic background for many significant and important endeavors. The Golden Triangle has always been a stage for historic drama – from the French and Indian and Revolutionary Wars, to mass migrations of rugged pioneers to the west, to countless coal barges feeding booming steel mills of industrial Pittsburgh, to the modern day locale for new Pirates and Steelers stadiums. And the drama continues.
Tonight in the Rivers of Pittsburgh, perhaps the first major novel set in Pittsburgh in the last twenty years, adds chapters to the mystery and lore of the city’s three rivers. Author Brian Lee Weakland has framed a fascinating story of wealthy families and political intrigue within these geographic boundaries, with more unexpected turns and twists for his readers than they would encounter in navigating these three great rivers.
Weakland has skillfully crafted a series of plots involving a diverse group of personalities in a manner that quickly captures the rapt attention of the reader. You will want to digest this book in one sitting. Financial greed, marital infidelity and political chicanery are adroitly interwoven with religious dedication, personal friendships and fragile family relationships that span several generations.
The rich historical background of Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania, coupled with the author’s keen knowledge and apt descriptions of this area’s geography, provide an interesting setting for a brutal murder, forensic scientific sleuthing and investigative journalism. Adding to the authenticity of Weakland's believable, yet fictional characters is their insertion into familiar Pennsylvania surroundings -- the Gettysburg National Battlefield, Bookbinder's Restaurant in Philadelphia and Seven Springs Ski Resort, to name a few. For added realism, the most dramatic moment occurs during the tornadic destruction of the Kinzua Valley railroad bridge in McKean County, a true event in July 2003.
The presumed death of a wealthy, powerful governor in a tragic accident from the Fort Pitt Bridge, the failure to retrieve his body from the Monongahela Rivers into which his limousine fell, the ensuing political machinations undertaken to fill that void by his long estranged son, and the unraveling and ultimate exposure of a clandestine affair with a former housemaid take the reader on an exciting roller coaster ride from Pennsylvania to Virginia and back again. Just when you begin to think you have figured everything out, and all the intricacies of the various sub-plots have been resolved, Weakland finds a way to suck you right back into the vortex of this human drama.
Whether you are looking for a good page-turner summer read or for a novel that tackles larger issues of ethics, race and the frailties of human nature, Weakland’s new novel will more than satisfy your literary appetite. As a practicing forensic pathologist and attorney, I was quite impressed by the intriguing forensic, scientific and complex legal issues of the book – sure to capture the avid attention and challenge the intellectual prowess of the reader as the plot unfolds.
Tonight in the Rivers of Pittsburgh is likely to deprive you of sleep on the night you turn the first page of this suspense laden book, but it will prove to be well worth the sacrifice.
(Dr. Wecht, former Allegheny County coroner, is a nationally-known forensic pathologist and author of “Mortal Evidence: The Forensics Behind Nine Shocking Cases”)
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