Spotlight on novelist Benjamin J. Gohs

Benjamin J. Gohs

Fun Facts

When I was a teenager, I worked for my dad’s dog training business with duties like picking up poo and wearing a padded sleeve so protection dogs could attack me. It was, at times, a stinky and scary job.

I put ketchup on my oatmeal. Really grosses out the wife.

I’m obsessed with pencils and have a rather large collection including some with Dr. Seuss designs, quotes from famous people, and a set with herb garden seeds inside for planting when the pencils have been used up.

Even though I’ve seen You’ve Got Mail dozens of times, I cry at the end when they meet in the park. Every time.

When I have a seriously meaningful connection with someone, I send them a piece of lapis lazuli as a memento of the occasion.

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When 19-year-old Abeona Browne's renowned abolitionist father Jon Browne dies in summer of 1860, devastating family secrets are revealed, and her life of privilege and naiveté in Southern Michigan becomes a frantic transatlantic search for answers—and someone she didn't even know existed.

Still in mourning, Abeona sneaks aboard the ship carrying her father’s attorney Terrence Swifte and his assistant Djimon—a young man with his own secrets—on a quest to Africa to fulfil a dying wish.

Along the journey, Abeona learns of her father’s tragic and terrible past through a collection of letters intended for someone he lost long ago.

Passage to the Dark Continent is fraught with wild beasts, raging storms, illness, and the bounty hunters who know Jon Browne’s diaries are filled with damning secrets which threaten the very anti-slavery movement he helped to build.

Can Abeona overcome antebellum attitudes and triumph over her own fears to right the wrongs in her famous family’s sordid past?

So named for an African proverb, A Thin Porridge is a Homeric tale of second chances, forgiveness, and adventure that whisks readers from the filth of tweendecks, to the treachery of Cameroons Town, across the beauty of Table Bay, and deep into the heart of the fynbos—where Boer miners continue the outlawed scourge of slavery

Where to Buy

Amazon UK • Amazon US • Amazon CA • Amazon AU • Barnes and Noble

About the Author

Benjamin J. Gohs is a longtime award-winning news editor whose investigative journalism has included stories of murder, sex-crime, historical discovery, corruption, and clerical misconduct.

Benjamin now divides his time between writing literary thrillers and managing the community newspaper he co-founded in 2009.

Connect with Benjamin: Website • Twitter • Goodreads.