I am the author of six novels: Doing Time, No Good Deed, Criminal Justice, The Woods, Dirty Business and Joab.
Doing Time
Filled with the local colour of life in rural North Carolina between the 1950s and 1970s, Doing Time is a poignant – and at times humorous – story of multi-generational trauma and abuse, and the journey of the human spirit to healing and redemption.
No Good Deed
What would lead an ordained minister, Kyle Weston (who had survived the Vietnam War), to commit suicide four decades later by hanging himself in the church? And why would he wear a T-Shirt proclaiming Death from Above?
Criminal Justice
Sometimes the way justice is dealt out behind bars is itself criminal. So discovers Stephen Travis, the chaplain at a men’s pre-release unit in the North Carolina Department of Corrections. The year is 1979 and Jim Crow is alive and well in the state justice system. The men in the Fairborn Advancement Center have all spent double digits behind bars and are looking forward to their release. However, their release comes at a price—set by their guards. Stephen Travis finds himself caught between his duty of care toward the inmates and following procedures mandated by the system. His decision could mean his life.
The Woods
Ah, retirement! And on the edge of a thriving university town, where one can find leisure, stimulating companionship, culture. New residents of Carolina Woods are encouraged by the managers, Beatrice Charon and Gretchen Beauxreves, to take long, slow walks in the woods from which the community derives its name. But these woods are something special, for at Carolina Woods, “where you live your dreams,” life is a cross between Dante’s Inferno and the Hades of Greek mythology. It is a realm of mirth, danger, sensuality, madness…and just desserts. It can also be a lot of fun! Won’t you come in?
“I’ve known Jack Lawson for forty years. To spend time with him is to watch his towering intellect, his soulful altruism and his wicked-dark sense of humor spar endlessly with each other. Sometimes it’s inspiring. Sometimes it’s challenging. And sometimes it’s just twisted fun. Welcome to his novel The Woods.”
—Jim Borgman, Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist and co-creator of the comic strip Zits
Dirty Business
Sleuth team, Stephen and Emily Travis (Criminal Justice) are back! Emily, an animal scientist, is called to a dairy farm where the cattle are sick and dying from a mystery illness. What begins as a straightforward scientific investigation leads to the discovery of deliberate dumping of toxic waste over hundreds of miles of rural roads—polluting land, water sources and all those who rely upon them. As the sickness spreads, Emily and Stephen, find themselves involved in a web of criminal intrigue wherein the person(s) behind the toxic spills will stop at nothing—including murder—to hide their identity.
JOAB
So you think you know about King David? The question is: Which David? The David of Sunday school: shepherd boy, killer of Goliath, and plucker of harp? But what about brigand, murderer, rapist, adulterer, poet, and king? David is all these things. Yet his real story has lain quite undisturbed in the Bible and obscured by centuries of legend. Thanks to the quantum universe we inhabit, you can step through the veil of time and death in order to observe David yourself, guided by his nephew, army commander, and ‘Fix-it man,’ Joab. Go where few people (apart from Near Death Experiencers) have gone and returned: Sheol, Hades, Paradise, The Land of No Return. By the power and speed of thought, enter the multiverse of ‘life continuing’ and let Joab show you firsthand his uncle David. But be warned, you will never again read the Bible as a tired, old text. Rather, it will sparkle with new expression and meaning. As an author and Hebrew Bible scholar, I seek to open the world of Hebrew narrative, by retelling the David story afresh, and placing it within a fictional setting for what I hope becomes a compelling story.
JACK N. LAWSON - author • speaker • trainer 