Fire Point

The critically acclaimed author of Cold returns with a thrilling and suspenseful story of love, vengeance, and renewal, set against the pristine beauty of one of America’s great inland seas.

At nineteen, Hannah LeClaire already has a reputation in the village of Whitefish Harbor, where she grew up. She is a solitary young woman who is given to long walks along the coast of Lake Superior. On a cold April day, she wanders into a dilapidated house and is startled by a stranger. Martin Reed, ten years her senior, has moved to Michigan’s remote Upper Peninsula to renovate the condemned Victorian once owned by his aunt. Quickly Hannah realizes that Martin is an outcast, too, and unlike anyone she has ever met.

Fire Point is the story of the summer Hannah and Martin attempt to rebuild their lives while restoring the house with the help of Martin’s cousin, a wily carpenter named Pearly. When Sean Colby, the son of a local police officer, returns to Michigan after being discharged early from military service, he cannot accept the fact that Hannah, his former girlfriend, is building a new life without him. As Sean commits a series of increasingly violent acts against Hannah, Martin, and the house, Whitefish Harbor is caught up in a passion play of vengeance and retribution.

In spare, graceful prose, Smolens again demonstrates his “skill in rendering scenes of stunning brutality and uncommon tenderness” (Publishers Weekly), which brought his recent novels Cold and The Invisible World international acclaim. Fire Point is an exquisite American story that examines the boundaries of forgiveness and redemption.

JOHN SMOLENS is a professor of English and the author of several novels, including Cold. Visit his website at www.johnsmolens.com.