award-winning fiction & travel writer
Michael Hartigan
"a master builder of suspense & plot"
Available online in print and e-book
and in local bookstores
"Hartigan’s well-crafted novel moves quickly and hits hard" - Publishers Weekly
Stone Angels, the 2015 Outstanding Writer Award winner, is a gritty, fast-paced and suspenseful fiction story that follows a young man dealing with extreme guilt. Readers are dropped into the mind of college senior Augustine Shaw, as he embarks on a road trip from Providence, Rhode Island to Key West, Florida. There he hopes the spring break atmosphere will help him forget the tragedies that marked his college years. But on the long road home, Shaw is thrust into a dizzying array of memories, forcing him to relive the heartache he caused, the reputations he shattered, and the two friends he killed. Ultimately, Shaw must decide: bury his secrets forever or make a full confession.
"Their story is not a love triangle, nor is it your average boy-meets-girl saga. Instead, it is a stirring page-turner that follows a group of friends and the events that bring them together—and eventually tear them apart forever."
Publishers Weekly
"The detail that Hartigan weaves through his writing is tangible and phenomenal...you're planted right on the page, a part of the story itself."
Scott Brazis
The Saugus Advocate
Kelly Easton
Author of Aftershock,
and more
"Michael Hartigan’s debut novel shimmers with style. Via the powerful narration of Augustine Shaw, the reader is thrust into the underbelly of college life, seedier and deadlier than any noir backroom.”
"First-time author and press secretary of U.S. Rep. Niki Tsongas of Massachusetts Michael Hartigan has written a compelling novel called Stone Angels, a book about guilt and the consequences of bad decisions. It's great, fun and well worth the read."
Michael Goldman
The Lowell Sun
"Hartigan blasts his characters apart...and then reassembles them so we readers know them inside out...I went at this book on a sleepy evening - and woke up in a hurry, and it went that way until the last word of all.”
Tom Sheehan
National Book Award nominee and author of numerous novels
"Michael Haritgan’s novel of pain, love and loss is mesmerizing – astory of college friends and the thin line between friendship and betrayal. A fascinating read."
David Harris Lang
Author of The Witch of Wanchai
Chapter 28
… Still on all fours, I peered over my shoulder and saw blood coagulating under his swollen nose – a wad of toilet paper protruding from one nostril. Instantly, he swung his foot like a Brazilian soccer player into my ribs. My entire body hiccupped and I collapsed onto my back.
Duncan wasted no time taking advantage of the upside-down tortoise position. He took a short stride forward and drove his foot into my right kidney. The dull thud pushed all the air from my lungs and up through my mouth in the form of a long, low, “fuuuuuuck.”
My eyes closed. I didn’t want to reopen them. If I could have relaxed all my muscles, forgotten the world and drifted into sleep, I would have right there on the soiled pavement behind Primal.
Instead I was drawn back to reality by another foot-jab to the side. This one was more startling than painful.
I opened my eyes wide and stared them directly at Duncan. It jolted him and he fell instinctively into a half retreat.
That was easy, I thought. All I had to do was look at the kid. I didn’t want to fight him and apparently I didn’t have to. I just had to pretend like I would. But I wouldn’t fight him. ...
Chapter 1
... One gradual curve right followed by a wide arc to the left then a twenty-yard uphill straightaway. At the top I sped through another curve left around an especially looming group of dark pines at fifty miles per hour. A quick S bend, my pulse quickened and another wide sweeping turn to the right. Was that perspiration on my forehead? A hard right, sharp left, the speedometer fluttering excitedly. We spit out onto another straightaway and ten yards ahead the road dropped down over the horizon like a cliff.
Without hesitation I took the Explorer over the top, hitting sixty-five miles per hour. As the car breeched the hill and came into its descent a sliver of silver moonlight split the clouds above; the high beams from heaven. All at once the full expanse of the road and the decline ahead was visible. The black curtain parted and I saw down below, nestled at the bottom of the hill, a dimly lit gas station. The moonlight mixed with its orange fluorescent bulbs gave it an eerie green, almost emerald glow.
My head, now full of adrenaline, still throbbed. Respite ahead but we were still lost. Maybe clarity was up ahead. ...
A fashionably-challenged Daddy is left in charge of his little girl when Mommy goes away on a business trip. Each day, Daddy dresses his daughter in silly, unique clothes, from cowboy hats to dinosaur costumes. But with every new outfit, the daughter’s imagination grows and each time she looks in the mirror, she sees something special staring back at her. Original artwork done by the author's mother!
2014
2015
The latest children's book from award-winning author Michael Hartigan takes you to Hollywood where two girls, Coco and Lala have set up the most lucrative talent agency in town by recruiting an unusual group of clients - monsters! Bigfoot on Broadway, Swamp Thing playing the saxophone, and Loch Ness walking the red carpet - Kids will love this fun and funny story about some very talented beasties, and learn that every creature has beauty inside. Original artwork done by the author's mother!