“Stealing History,” by William D. Andrews; Islandport Press, New Gloucester, 2006; 216 pages; $15.95.

“Stealing History” is a classic whodunit that kept me guessing until the very end. William D. Andrews has crafted a mystery, and it’s a good one. Whenever I suspected one person, another stepped forward and became a suspect, then another and another. There’s even a police chief whom I suspected because by the time he stepped on stage, I was suspecting everybody.

The scene opens as Julie Williamson places a call to her mentor in New York. He works at a major auction house and advises her of the value of a letter from former President Lincoln to Hannibal Hamlin. Julie has taken over as director of a historical society and museum in the town of Ryland in western Maine and phoned him because the letter is missing.

At a board of trustees meeting, we are introduced to a cast of Maine characters. They ask Julie to do an inventory to see if she can find the letter. More historical artifacts are discovered missing. When the former director, Worth Harding, is found murdered, Julie finds herself a potential target.

To me, the former director is a Maine original by the way he leaves a tip in a Ryland restaurant. He had taken Julie there to inform her about the upcoming board of trustees meeting. Worth asks the waitress for separate checks (Luckily Julie had brought her purse). On a bill of $5.95, he leaves a $1.05 tip. “When the waitress returned with the change, Worth scooped up the nickel and the dollar and replaced it with three quarters.” Priceless. I’ve never had the courage to do that.

One interesting tidbit is that the author has made the historical director a fan of jigsaw puzzles. In her spare time, Julie works on them. She stays at an out-of-season ski resort until she can live in a house in town.

Viewing the scenery, “She imagined the mountain peaks as pieces of a puzzle that she could take apart and reassemble.” This is followed by, “But how were the pieces of the other puzzle fitting together?”

The last quote meant the events at the historical society. It’s a puzzle, a complicated one, yet Andrews walks us through each scene, adding pieces here and there. We follow at a slow pace and remember each suspect and why she/he is a suspect. Clues are gently inserted, enough so we happily follow the author’s lead and try to guess whodunit.

Andrews has been a trustee of the Bethel Historical Society and knows his subject. It clearly shows by the job description of the duties of a historical society and museum director and what constitutes historical artifacts such as letters, muskets and paintings.

According to Andrews, there is a market for stolen goods from local museums and one market is Ebay. Imagine seeing a revolutionary sword offered on the Ebay site by “Uncle Charlie” who inherited it from “Grandma Mabel.” One reads about objects such as old maps and books that are stolen from major and minor museums for private collections. Even the Mona Lisa wasn’t safe, or Charlie Chaplin’s corpse. My goodness, is nothing sacred?

While reading the novel, I was struck by how youngish the narration is. The author has been around the block enough times to have gray hair only one wouldn’t know it from the text. It is fresh and original and a pleasure to read. He has written three textbooks on management communications so the intricacy of a mystery does not overwhelm him in the least. This is his first novel and I’m sure more will follow from the same publisher, Islandport Press. This is Islandport’s pioneer venture into fiction.

Andrews spends his time between Portland and Newry. He summered in Maine for 18 years until he moved permanently here as the president of Westbrook College in Portland. When the college merged with the University of New England, it enabled him to write full time. Oh, and he cooks, too.

I give the book 3 stars.

Edward M. Turner is a freelance writer living in Biddeford. His novel, “Rogues Together,” won the Eppie Award for best in action/adventure.