Moreover, there is a passionate streak inside Whyborne, hidden beneath a veneer of diffidence and social propriety. One thing about Whyborne that fascinates Griffin is that, while he is a son of the richest family in Widdershins, heir to vast railroad and industrial fortunes, he shuns his family and insists on living in a small flat on his modest curatorial salary. There he meets Percival Whyborne, the tall, pale-eyed, painfully shy Curator of Philology at the Ladysmith Museum. Griffin is an ex-Pinkerton detective, cut loose after a mental breakdown, who comes to Widdershins in the eponymous first book, seeking to set up as a private detective. At the series’ center are the two characters of Griffin Flaherty and Percival Endicott Whyborne. Something about the town won’t let them go.

People who grow up there may leave, but they always come back. But everyone outside of Widdershins knows that something is strange about the city. Founded in the 17th century by a group of men fleeing the witch trials in Salem, Widdershins is outwardly a typical thriving industrial city at the turn of the 20th century. Hawk has created a fictional seaport city north of Boston called Widdershins. Hawk’s remarkable Whyborne & Griffin series is that Widdershins holds onto its own.įor her epic paranormal romance novels Ms. Sci-fi as written by Anthony Trollope? The Palliser novels as imagined by Ray Bradbury? Well, the only easy generalization about Jordan L.

Stormhaven by Jordan L. Hawk