PA Turnpike In Edward Ware Thrillers

Now the authors are traveling through Pennsylvania, which was Dora’s home state. She was a native Pittsburgher and liked to travel with her parents on the Lincoln Highway that first opened to the public in 1913. Where was she going? If you have read Key to Lawrence you might remember she was attending Bryn Mawr College outside Philadelphia when she unexpectedly became engaged to Edward Ware. There’s an exciting chase scene through the Amish country of Pennsylvania with saboteurs chasing Dora. The saboteurs from the Lusitania working for Kaiser Wilhelm wouldn’t leave the heroine alone no matter where she went.

In part two of this expanded May newsletter we want to share with you photos from the Midway Service Plaza on the modern Pennsylvania Turnpike commemorating the 100 year old highway on which Dora drove to many troublesome adventures befitting a heroine of a thriller novel.

This year the Midway South Service Plaza has turned itself into a museum to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the opening of the Pennsylvania Turnpike on October 1, 1940 between Irwin and Carlisle. That section of the turnpike is also featured in another Edward Ware Thriller novel, Hitler in New York. Dora and Edward engage in a hair-raising chase scene with the villainess of the series, Helga von Wessel, on the first stretch of the highway a couple of months BEFORE it was opened to anybody else.