BEHIND THE CURVE By: Steve Chance Book Summary Peter Gordon, a lawyer practicing in the quiet New Jersey beach community of North Beach, was sitting in his office on a rainy Friday afternoon in October when he received a visit from local billionaire, Norman Hawkins. Norman told Peter a story of a son lost to a cult-like, populist political movement. Norman solicited Peter's help in regaining his son but refused to divulge his plans for how this might be accomplished. Norman departed to sail his yacht south for the winter leaving a hefty retainer and a host of unanswered questions. Twenty-four hours later Norman Hawkins' body washed up on the beach of the town, the apparent victim of a tragic boating accident. Peter cannot shake off the echoes of Norman's story. Whether from simple curiosity, a sense of duty to a new client or the desire to keep the retainer, Peter sets off to look into the circumstances of the last day of Norman Hawkins' life. Could Norman's death have been more than an accident? Peter's questions lead him ever forward from the safe harbor of North Beach to California and back again as he is led deeply into the pathologies of the Hawkins family, cast as a participant in the struggle for control of Hawkins Industries and put in the way of the ambitions of a violence-prone cult leader. As Peter follows the trail of Norman's death, Norman's quest for redemption of his son becomes Peter's own driving him to the final twists of a cult's plot to take control of a major U.S. corporation.
