Dave Dodge never has to look far for a good story. Growing up in Franklin, he tended to gravitate toward the state’s rich history, which he often saw all around him.
“When I decided to be a writer, I thought you could write about something that you know,” he said. “What I do know is New Hampshire.”
The Hannah Duston statue, peeking out of the island in Boscawen, piqued his interest whenever he drove along Route 4. Based on historic accounts, Duston was kidnapped in 1697 by indigenous Abenaki people during King William’s War, and she fled captivity with her fellow hostages by slaying a family of ten Native Americans.
Since then, Duston and her story have lived in infamy. Likewise, The Boscawen statue and its less-than-tasteful depiction of Duston holding a handful of scalps has been mired in controversy.
In October, a state representative penned legislation to remove the statue, but completely overrode it in January to create an advisory council. Lorrie Carey, a Boscawen selectperson who’s on the statue’s advisory committee, said the town applied to a grant through Boston’s Wentworth Institute of Technology to work on improvements to the park with architecture students.
More recently, the statue has been defaced with the word “hate” spray painted in large green letters.
Dodge saw a different side. With his third book, “Hannah: One Woman’s Quest for Vengeance and Enlightenment,” Dodge put himself in Duston’s shoes and imagined how frightened she must have been in those moments.
“The more I researched Hannah, the more I realized that her story is about a mom, about survival, about thinking about her Puritan faith and how she is going to get out of that situation,” he said.
Dodge is a long way from home these days — running his boutique bed and breakfast and spa down in Mérida, Mexico — but he keeps New England close at heart by writing about historical women that he grew up hearing about.
His first book “The Seasons of Grace,” follows the life of Grace Metalious, author of “Peyton Place,” a successful and scandalous book set in a fictional New Hampshire town that mirrors Gilmanton, where Metalious lived. Dodge found an old paper he’d written about the author while he was a student: He had earned a C minus on it, but he still felt compelled to write the historical novel.
His second novel retells the life of Betty Hill and her extraordinary story about terrestrial sightings and alien abduction. Dodge said he likes blending fact with folklore in his books and telling the story of dynamic women that have been silenced over the years.
“I think that sometimes women are much more interesting,” Dodge said. “They have had their struggles, and they have had to beat many demons to get through it all. The particular women that I choose have had their own demons: alcoholism, ridicule, and we vilify all of them. But yet again, here it is, we’re still talking about them.”
His book comes on the heels of the months-long effort to remove the Duston statue. Dodge said that history shouldn’t be erased because of the perception that it is “unpleasant.” He suggested a plaque contextualizing her story could be added to the site.
“[My book] doesn’t cast judgment, it doesn’t make it right or wrong, but … you’re inside the story of her, how she felt, and what would you do and how far would you go before you were called a monster,” he said.
Dodge will be speaking about his novel at Gibson’s Bookstore on June 11 at 6:30 p.m. More information can be found at https://gibsonsbookstore.com/event/dodge-hannah.
