Hawke’s Point

Jonas Hawke, a recovering alcoholic with bouts of crankiness and unmitigated orneriness, may be past his prime but he’s still a damned good lawyer. That’s why everyone in Beacon Junction turns to him for advice as soon as something goes wrong. And plenty does-murder, adultery, corporate conspiracy-everything you’d expect from a sleepy Vermont town. A mysterious stranger arrives in town to question Jonas’s handling of a decades-old murder trial, forcing him to confront an ethical lapsein his past. When evidence surfaces that a heart stent made by a local company may be deadly, he is drawn into an ethical quagmire that will determine how he’ll be remembered. Hawke’s Point is the story of a broken man who gets a second chance to do the right thing, a novel with a potent mix of complex characters, life-and-death problems to keep them busy, and a page-turning plot. As Mark Willen explores life in a small Vermont community he addresses large themes: guilt, forgiveness, familial loss, love, ethical dilemmas of many kinds. Vivid, complex characters like Jonas Hawke, retired lawyer and repository of many of the community’s secrets, engage the reader and move the narrative along at an energetic pace. This is anovel so rich in humanity and situation that the world of Hawke’s Point will continue to beguile long after the reader has turned the last page. -Margaret Meyers, author of Dislocation and Swimming in the Congo Every town has its secrets and almost all hold such confidences close to the heart. It takes a determined, resourceful storyteller to bring such tales to the surface and that’s what Mark Willen has done with his new novel set in the star-crossed town of Beacon Junction. -Tim Wendel, author of Red Rain, Habana Libre, and Summer of ‘68