But Griffin has his family issues as well an adopted child, he yearns to reconnect with his Midwestern, religiously conservative family. Whyborne’s richly sinister family - his unscrupulous robber-baron father, Niles, his neurasthenic but loving mother Heliabel, and his dismissive and arrogant siblings Guinevere and Stanford - each have an important role in the unraveling of the complicated Gordian knot of interconnected plotlines in which Ms. Throughout the books the backstories of both men pervade the plotlines. Christine Putnam – a vehement feminist who is more at home shooting a rifle than holding a teacup – Griffin and Percival try to build a life as a couple in a world that is both hostile to them and seething with unseen magic. Supported by Whyborne’s colleague and best friend, Egyptologist Dr.

Beset from all sides by murder and sorcery, Griffin and Percival struggle to trust in each other’s love. As Griffin gets caught up in an increasingly bizarre mystery involving Percival, he not only finds himself tapping into Whyborne’s unacknowledged magical skills, but into his long-suppressed passion as well.Īt times over-the-top in its bizarre paranormal shenanigans, the Whyborne & Griffin series anchors the reader in the evolving connection between these two brilliant, damaged men. 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.

Whyborne and griffin