EDWARDSBURG — In November, Tom Haikin moved from Virginia to Edwardsburg with his family. When he got there, he expected to find a small, lake and farm community near Elkhart, where his son-in-law had recently found a new job. He also found something that he was unprepared for: the setting and subjects for his next mystery novel.

The story, which is Haikin is in the process of writing, is based in Edwardsburg circa 1884. It will surround a character he is tentatively naming Caleb Tyler. The protagonist is on his way from Albany, New York to Chicago when his train breaks down in Edwardsburg. While waiting to continue his journey, he runs into a traveling salesman named Mr. Jensen, who will explain to Tyler the short history of Edwardsburg and provide details about the town that no one seems to know in the present day.

“The traveling salesman is telling him about stuff,” Haikin said. “So that’s what it’s going to be, the traveling salesman is going to fill him in, and that’s how I am going to patch together pieces of history and the gaps in it that I’m going to fill. That’s why it’s historical fiction, because I really do like the why more than the what and when.”

On the surface this might seem like a strange premise for a novel, but Haikin is fascinated by the founders of Edwardsburg and how little is known about much of their lives.

When Haikin first moved to Edwardsburg, he wanted to learn about the town. He came from Williamsburg, Virginia where local history was always apparent and easy to find, but in Edwardsburg he had to dig for it.

“I thought there’s a museum in Edwardsburg, there’s a little of this, there’s a little of that. I’ll just go ask,” he said. “There are no photos of Ezra [Beardsley]. There are no photos Thomas Edwards. There are [not many] writings about them. I thought, that’s kind of a mystery and I do write a lot of mysteries.”

The novel will revolve around Haikin using his imagination to explain what is unknown about Beardsley and Edwards.

“Where was Ezra Beardsley headed when he decided to settle by what he named Pleasant Lake?” Haikin wrote in an email. “He was 44 years old at the time. What was he planning to do?

Edwardsburgh was named by A.H. Edwards, a person who might or might not be Thomas A.H. Edwards, a merchant who came into the area a year later. There’s no record of an A.H. Edwards in Edwardsburg records but he is recorded in Kalamazoo a few years later.”

The third mystery the novel will explore is why a train route that was supposed to run through Edwardsburg ended up changing course and going through Granger instead.

“Why did the train route change?” he said. “If it had run through Edwardsburg this would be a much bigger place today.”

This will be Haikin’s 18th novel, all of which he has written in the past 12 years. Writing them is one of his hobbies. Prior to that, he little to no experience in fiction, but says he has a slightly ‘twisted mind’ and his novels give him a positive outlet to use when exploring the depths of his imagination.

At the same time, Haikin does not intend to corrupt of sully and of the people mentioned in his book.

“I’m not going to throw rocks at any of the historical characters,” he said. “They all need to be treated with respect.”

He expects the novel to take a few more months to write and be between 100 and 120 pages.

His editor is Tara, his wife of more than 40 years.

“She reads everything I write,” he said.

He prints the books himself via a service on Amazon, and plans to donate a few copies to the Edwardsburg Area History Museum to sell or do with what they please.

His previous works are available for purchase on Amazon and Kindle.

In the meantime, Haikin will continue to research Edwardsburg and try to uncover al he can about the town’s history. But whatever he cannot find he will solve with his own fantastical ideas.