Points of Origin by Darden North

Product Details

Synopsis

In most places and concerning most people, appearances are not a luxury but a necessity. No family finds that more true than the Foxworths of Larkspur, a charming but greedy Mississippi town.

There in Larkspur or anywhere else for that matter, the life of handsome young Sher Foxworth filled an enviable American dream: smart kid starring as high school quarterback; successful plastic surgeon for a father; attractive, supportive mother; not to mention rich grandparents.

But then a single death at the hands of his father rips the town apart, throwing the life of Sher Foxworth and his family into a downward spiral, a corkscrew that entangles more devastation and turmoil as Sher himself lands in jail. It is that tangle with a female police officer which derails his own life from that of circumstantial town hero into a journey he never intended—far from his plans for medical school.

While Sher Foxworth belongs to an era when careers are chosen voluntarily, he nevertheless is conscripted into a service that neither he nor his grieving grandfather would have ever chosen for him. Instead of becoming a doctor, Sher becomes a fireman. It is that twist of fate that places Foxworth in a universe parallel to an individual from his past, an arsonist for hire whose techniques are at times unorthodox by even criminal standards, but nonetheless effective. A cell phone call draws the arsonist home from the shadows, back to the same small town fronted with a tranquil façade that hides seething jealousy, hypocrisy, resentment, sadness, and revenge.

While in Points of Origin readers will sample the return of endearing and controversial characters made popular in North's 2005 debut novel House Call, they will become immersed in the tumultuous lives of a different set of players: the colorful inhabitants of Larkspur—a new mix of personalities and egos that wraps the lover of fiction into the livid world of southern intrigue.

Biography

Darden North, MD, is an obstetrician/gynecologist in partnership at Jackson Healthcare for Women in Jackson, Mississippi. A member of the AMA and the Central Mississippi Medical Society, North is a fellow of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology and a diplomat of the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology, maintaining board recertification. He has served two terms as chairman of Mississippi Health Partners, a Physicians and Hospital Organization. Born in Jackson and reared in Cleveland, Mississippi, he and his wife Sally are active community members. In addition to practicing medicine, North has written and published a second novel of southern fiction and mystery. His first novel House Call was nominated in fiction for the 2006 Mississippi Institute for Arts and Letters and the Southern Independent Booksellers awards.