The real Jake Gibbs

The character in my Patriot Spy novels is, of course, fiction, but he’s based on a number of real people, starting with Enoch Crosby, who was active in the New York and Hudson Valley area during the time the books are set.

Crosby and his tales are said to have formed the basis of Fennimore Cooper’s The Spy, but I first learned of Crosby himself from Willa Skinner, a local historian in Fishkill, New York. Crosby had been held prisoner in Fishkill during the Revolution, apparently as part of his elaborate cover as a Tory.

Mrs. Skinner (how she preferred it, as I recall) told his story countless times, each time a little better. She told it to me when I was a young newspaper reporter, working my way through college and in need of a feature story. I doubt the story I wrote then was half as good as the ones she told of Crosby’s escapes from both jail and death. But I remembered it, and plundered freely years later when I started working on the books. A bit of them is set in Fishkill, which is authentically recreated.

Well, almost authentically. I had to move a barn about a hundred feet to make some of the action work in one of the books. And wouldn't you know: a member of the local historical society called me on that when I gave a talk on the history behind the books.

You can't fool a real buff.

 (The first book in the series is now available for Kindle here.)