The lives of notorious bad guys, perpetrators of mischief, visionary--if misunderstood--thinkers, and other colorful antiheroes, jerks, and evil doers from history all get their due in the short essays featured in this enlightening, informative book.      Award-winning author Matthew P. Mayo's Speaking Ill of the Dead: Jerks in New England History features twenty short biographies of nefarious characters, from Charles W. Morse (serial monopolist, cheat, liar, and swindler!) to Emeline Meaker & Mary Rogers, otherwise known as the Vermont's Lady Killers!      Take a peek--you won't believe the depths of jerkiness to which these nefarious New Englanders stooped! ReviewEdit "Mayo is a breezy yarn-spinner, the kind you'd like to sit around a pot-bellied stove with on a cold night." --Bookgasm.com "[Mayo's] westerns are steeped in authenticity and boiled in action...." --Booklifenow.com Matthew P. Mayo  is a Western Writers of America Spur Award-Winner, and a Western Fictioneers Peacemaker Award Finalist. His short stories have appeared in numerous anthologies and his novels include the Westerns  Winters' War ,  Wrong Town ,  Hot Lead ,  Cold Heart ,  Dead Man's Ranch ,  Tucker's Reckoning ,   and  The Hunted . He contributes to several popular series of Western and adventure novels.      His non-fiction books include  Cowboys, Mountain Men & Grizzly Bears ;  Bootleggers, Lobstermen & Lumberjacks ;   Sourdoughs, Claim Jumpers & Dry Gulchers ; and  Haunted Old West .      Matthew has written a series of coffee-table books about New England ( Maine Icons , New Hampshire Icons , Vermont Icons ) with his wife, photographer Jennifer Smith-Mayo.      Visit him on the web at matthewmayo.com .