Hawkes Harbor
By S. E. Hinton

    Susan Eloise Hinton is a household name when it comes to Young Adult novels -- the Outsiders, Rumblefish, Tex. Hawkes Harbor is her first adult novel, and it dives headfirst into adventure, unthinkable horror and insanity with a few laughs along the way. I didn't expect the total absorption I experienced in this novel.

    An orphan and a bastard, Jamie Sommers grew up knowing he had no hope of heaven. Conceived in adultery and born in sin, Jamie was taught that he would repeat the sins of his parents by the nuns who raised him, and they were right. He left the orphanage to embark on a life of danger and adventure at sea.

    Jamie's hair raising exploits in foreign ports keep you turning the pages. He is a smuggler, gunrunner, and murderer. Jamie is a survivor who endures foreign prisons, lives through a shark attack, and outsmarts pirates. He gambles, uses drugs, and hires prostitutes. A bad boy who is at the same time endearing.

   He finally settles in the small town of Hawkes Harbor on the Delaware coast. He follows up on an intriguing legend of pirates treasure and stumbles into a situation so terrifying that his life is changed in a matter of minutes. Nothing that I read about this book indicated that it was a vampire novel, but Jamie's new employer, the mysterious Grenville Hawke, lord of Hawkes Hall, almost kills Jamie in a shocking scene that came as a total surprise...then goes on to enslave him for years to come. He is the ultimate evil, but there are changes in both Jamie and Grenville Hawke that are soul satisfying.

     Hinton has a unique style, twisting the plot back and forth through time with surprises at every turn. Though she has received many awards for her Young Adult novels, she has certainly found a ready niche in the Adult market. What a trip! I couldn't put this book down.