Mike Lawson discusses Redemption
Mike Lawson. Redemption (Grove/Atlantic, $26.00).
Convicted of insider trading, Jamison Maddox reluctantly accepts a mysterious job that soon takes an ominous twist, sending him on the run from powerful and deadly forces in the latest thriller from Barry Award and Edgar Award finalist Mike Lawson.
With his reputation permanently marred by an insider trading conviction, Jamison Maddox, a young Wall Street broker, reluctantly takes a job doing research for a small company in the sleepy town of Redemption, Illinois. He’s never heard of the company, or of the town, but he’s out of money and options. Though Jamison notices right away that everyone in Redemption is in some way related to one another, the big city boy chalks it up to small town ways. And as for the company’s seemingly extreme security practices, Jamison was planning on minding his own business anyway.
But when he falls in love with a beautiful and enigmatic colleague, Gillian, Jamison begins to realize that he may be doing illegal work for the company. So when she asks him to run away with her, he agrees wholeheartedly. The two set off across the country, hoping to secure some money and go into hiding. The company is soon on their tails, pursuing them with the single-minded goal of silencing them forever.
If Jamison hadn’t realized how dangerous these people really are, he now realizes they will stop at nothing to protect the company. And he has no idea that his lover, a stunning woman shrouded in mystery, is as dangerous as the people he’s running from.
About the Author:
I was raised in Pueblo, Colorado with a passel of brothers and one sister, then attended college at Seattle University and got a degree in engineering. After college, I went to work for the U.S. Navy as a nuclear engineer and spent about thirty years working for the Navy’s nuclear power program. I spent some time in Washington D.C., but most of my career was at a large naval shipyard in Bremerton, Washington. At the shipyard I managed a number of different organizations related to overhauling nuclear powered submarines, cruisers, and aircraft carriers. I ended my career as a member of the government’s Senior Executive Service and as the top civilian at the shipyard. The influence of my former career on my writing is discussed briefly in the “Behind the Books” section of this website.
So how’d I go from nuclear engineering to writing? The short answer is I like to write, it’s fun for me, so I tried my hand at it. I tell people that if you want to be a writer you need some talent, a lot of persistence, and a whole lot of luck. In 2004, I got very lucky: a fantastic agent liked The Inside Ring and got me a two-book deal with a publisher. By the end of 2021, I will have published eighteen novels, fifteen in my DeMarco series and three in my Kay Hamilton series. After that who knows.
Regarding my personal life, let’s just leave at: I’m married, live in the Pacific Northwest, and when I’m not writing, I mostly play golf – or in reality, do whatever my wife tells me to do.