A review by susannam
Dogtown: Death and Enchantment in a New England Ghost Town by Elyssa East

4.0

Dogtown: Death and Enchantment is close to me, literally - I live on the edge of Dogtown on Cape Ann and the murder victim is a member of the extended family, so I may not be entirely objective. That said....this is a terrific book. There are two main characters: the murderer and Dogtown itself. Where Elyssa East shines is in trying to get at the elusive character of a wild, abandoned yet treasured piece of earth in the center of Cape Ann. Dogtown has inspired artists, attracted the occult, accepted society's outcasts, nurtured its one of-a-kind characters. It anchors an important piece of Gloucester's identity. East gets it and the way she chronicles her search helps the reader understand more about this fascinating part of the world and its history. She initially travels to Dogtown to find the site of a painting by Marsden Hartley and her very first venture into the interior of Cape Ann leaves her unsettled. When she returns for more research, she finds a dark undercurrent that keeps rising in interviews with people, with the murder referenced over and over again, even though it had taken place almost 20 years earlier. She finds herself more and more drawn into the mystery and oddity of this place and finds herself going in directions she hadn't expected. I need to say that there are a few factual errors that won't bother most people and don't effect the truth of the overall story. This is a crime story, but even more, the portrait of a place.