The Diary of Dalton

Doyle Dalton himself debuts in Time by Einstein. But this is by far not the first time we've heard of Dalton or his diary.

In The Isle of Osiris, we meet Burt Dalton, one of Doyle's descendants. He's trying to showcase Doyle Dalton's Cabinet of Curiosities at the local fair. It's here that Jamie discovers the mysterious alabaster statue that begins her adventure that has now spanned 9 stories in 7 paper books. Jamie hears:

“And that’s not all you’ll see in the world famous Cabinet of Curiosities. The Cabinet of Curiosities belonging to world-renowned soldier of fortune, Doyle Dalton! Why this here cabinet has been all over the world from Nova Sco-tia to New Mex-i-co, From Zim-bob-way to Zin-za-bar, and San Fran-cisco to Scot-land. Like thousands before you, you will see the three headed child from the darkest African jungles. A unicorn’s horn! That’s right, folks, sci-en-tific proof—including photographs—that such creatures exist and right here in the U. S. of A!” He punctuated his words with taps on the microphone. “The skeletal remains of an elephant three times the size of modern ones. Doyle Dalton was unable to bring back an entire carcass, so he stripped it bare with his own hands and dragged it out of the jungle, almost losing his life. Also, you’ll see the footprint of the abominable snowman frozen in ice.”

For readers in Nova Scotia, this is also the first of many references to Nova Scotia in the series. It certainly won't be the last.

Where did Burt Dalton get his stories he used to try to sell tickets to the Cabinet of Curiosities? The diary written by Doyle Dalton.

Burt Dalton has kept the diary secret. So secret, in fact, that readers may have missed that there are actually two volumes to his diary. The books are uncovered during a robbery. Freddie Babbin, a former employee of Burt's and the mysterious Aziz-Abdul Akkad are after the alabaster statue. A scene from the robbery from Tome of Tubal-Cain:

Babbin rooted through the safe and fished up a couple leather-bound books. “What we got here? Rubbish!” He

pitched them over his shoulder. They fell with a thunk against the wall.

“Oy! Those aren't worth anything, but they’re my great-great-granddad’s diaries!” Dalton tried to retrieve them, but his legs failed.

“Looks like you'll have sumthin' to read while you're waitin' here!” Babbin pulled another jack-o-lantern grimacr before he pulled stacks of cash from the safe. “Ouch! Now why'd you go and do that for?” He glared accusingly at Akkad.

From there (lots of spoilers) Jamie acquires the diaries. Again from Tome of Tubal-Cain:

I opened the cover and met Doyle Dalton. On the first page, in faded but bold black letters, he’d scribed his name with flair. To the side of his name he wrote a date: 1 April 1907. He had been born in 1890, making him seventeen as he began journaling. I turned the page. He introduced himself with further flair and wide curling letters. I’d read that people who wrote in large letters were self-assured, outgoing, and confident.

While the series is based around Jamie Poole's diaries, which she has hidden "somewhere" and the reader has discovered them, Doyle Dalton's diaries are equally significant. They will help drive Jamie further in pursuing her goal of understanding her dad, stopping the psychopath time traveler, and protecting herself and her friends from being rewritten or entirely erased from the timeline. That is a tall ask!

However, there's one catch, as Jamie and her friends discover as they examine the diaries for the first time:

Always the impatient one, Lenore flipped to the end of the diary. Unlike me who had carefully followed Dalton’s personal development to understand how that might direct the story, she haphazardly disregarded information like the eight years of biographical trivia which I had carefully outlined in my own notebook. Her eyes grew wide at her discovery. “Oh, my god! Look!”

“Looks like Arabic,” I said. Doyle Dalton, who had copied simple words and phrases from languages of every country he’d visited, suddenly shifted entirely into another language.

The remaining first diary and all of the second is written in a mysterious language that is not Arabic although it looks similar. Jamie hands the diaries over to Dr. Mary Sutherland, who specializes in lost and ancient languages. She enlists the help of colleagues. And while this activity is secondary to Jamie's adventures in following books, Mary remains unsuccessful at translating Dalton's words. That is until Time by Einstein.

Mary read the first line of the text out loud for the hundredth time. Then the hundred and first. She cursed in Gaelic. There was silence then, “Brett?”

“What?” There was an edge to his voice, matching hers.

“Remember the star map you found all those years ago?”

He snorted. “Of course. It led us to find the Isle of Osiris.”

“Right of course. Remember it had three languages painted on it? I could only identify two.”

“Yes,” he said slower this time.

“I think this is the same language.”

“Are you sure?”

“I’ve suspected it for a while, but I need to compare it to the map.” She paused and looked up. “That’s not all. I think… I think I can read this. Maybe I’m getting tired. Maybe my eyes are blurring. Maybe my brain flipped to Gaelic…” 

He was seated in front of her desk before she looked up.

What might Dalton's diary say? Get Time by Einstein and find out!

Time by Einstein and The Wild Hunt are both available internationally on Amazon. However, if you are in the Halifax area, there are other options. 

You can purchase any of the Jamie Poole Books directly from the author. Arrangements can be made by emailing: JamiePooleBooks@gmail.com. 

We are pleased to announce that we will be returning to Hal-Con this year as a vendor. Here are DETAILS.

Additionally Dartmouth Book Exchange is a preferred vendor who can assist you in getting the books any time of year. If you are a customer of Dartmouth Book Exchange, ask them about the special we are running for Hal-Con and Dartmouth Book Exchange. This special is good until November 10, 2024.