In his novel Prodigal Sons, Mike Miner
captured the many complexities inherent in the dynamic among three adult
brothers. In his follow up book, Hurt Hawks, Miner again explores the
bonds between a band of brothers, but this time, the fraternal ties are
not based on blood. Or, at least, not blood in the familial sense. When
an Afghan War veteran in Dorchester Massachusetts is killed by a local
thug who collects shakedown money for the area's local gangster, an
ex-soldier whose life the vet once saved calls together his old unit to
find out what happened to the vet and who killed him. To say that
Captain Patrick Donavan, the unit commander, has led a morally checkered
life since leaving the service is an understatement, and in fact none
of the members of his old four man unit has had an easy time of it in
civilian life stateside. But the chance to reunite for a righteous
cause, and to defend the victim's imperiled widow and son, is something
that re-energizes these men and makes their lives worth living again.
Hurt Hawks calls upon a number of familiar tropes. You
have a revenge story that wouldn't be out of place in a Western - the
way the young boy Andrew looks up to Donovan clearly has echoes of Shane
- you have the war vets in a crime story back home trope; you have the
morally compromised individual searching for something, a defining act,
that will give him a measure, however small, of redemption. What makes
Hurt Hawks work is the purity with which Miner tackles his subject
manner. A story doesn't have
to be brand new to work if the execution clicks. And here, yes, it
clicks. The writing is direct, clear, and fast. Every character in the
book, major and minor, is vividly etched. The
tone is serious and morally ambiguous, the narrative compelling. You
care quite a bit about what will happen to Patrick Donavan, his crew,
and the widow and boy they're defending, and Miner ends things in the
best way possible - by following through without false sentiment on the
initial premises he laid out.
Mike Miner has a gift for creating real,
complicated people on the page, characters with weight, and now that
I've read two of his books, it's safe to say I'll pick up quickly
whatever he turns out next.
Hurt Hawks is published by One Eye Press, by the way, which continues to put out really good novellas and short novels.
