Garrett Hutson

About Garrett Hutson

I was born in Indianapolis in 1971, and have lived most of my life there. I attended Ball State University from 1989 to 1993, completed a major in French and a minor in Spanish, and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts. I have one teenage daughter, Paige.

I have been a committed bookworm from a young age, and my early favorites included the authors Mark Twain, Robert Lewis Stevenson, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie and James Michener. Later favorites included F. Scott Fitzgerald, Tom Clancy and Gore Vidal. Lately I have been reading a lot of Alan Furst, Ken Follett, and William Kent Krueger. I am also an avid reader of history books.

In my spare time I enjoy traveling, reading, watching movies, attending the theater, playing with my dogs, and spending time with family.

Novels

The Swiss Conspiracy

Someone is killing Swiss colonels, and painting a hammer and sickle at the scene. When Dr. Fritz Rubenstein, a physicist in Zurich, is gunned down in his office, the only clue is a letter in his trash can requesting assistance for the French Resistance. The U.S. government suspects a deeper plot, and Martin Schuller is sent to Switzerland to go undercover and find out.

As World War II rages all around, Switzerland is an island of serenity. Delving beneath the serene appearance of Swiss society, Martin finds a secretive world of right-wing organizations, idealistic student activists, banks full of Nazi gold, and competing foreign agents. Switzerland in the fall of 1941 is not what it appears. With the help of Franz Lemiel, a world-wise artist and activist, and Jason Bachman, an eager young American diplomat, Martin discovers a conspiracy to bring down the entire Swiss government in one dramatic event. Can he stop the conspirators from carrying out their attack, and changing the entire course of the war?

Murder at Sutton's Pond

Who could have possibly wanted to kill Tom Stafford, the most popular kid in school, and the best quarterback in town history? Sheriff Mark Bennett certainly can't fathom a reason. Everyone knows everything about everyone in their small southern Indiana town…or do they?

When Tom Stafford is found stabbed to death in the woods outside of Heronville, the town is thrown into shock and disbelief. Sheriff Bennett, up for re-election in just six weeks, is under tremendous pressure to solve the crime quickly. Over the course of the investigation, Mark learns disturbing truths about the murdered boy who dated his daughter. As he digs deeper, he uncovers parallels with the county's last homicide, still unsolved after 21 years. The more he learns, the more Mark wonders if they've arrested the wrong person. Jason Hollister certainly had a big secret to keep, but was Tom really killed to keep him silent?

Murder at Sutton’s Pond is set in 1982 in Heronville, a fictitious town of 6,000 in the hills of southeastern Indiana. It is full of the flavor and the voice of this region caught at the intersection of tradition and modernity, isolationism and a longing for more, on the edge of the South and the Midwest. It is a mystery, but with cross-over appeal to fans of Midwestern Americana and gay & lesbian fiction.

100,000 words.

Duncan MacKenzie

Duncan MacKenzie’s whole world is shattered when he witnesses his father’s violent death, and is separated from his brother Luke in the wilderness. Only his wits and his determination to survive keep him going until he can escape from the Shawnee village where he’s held, and return home to his family.

Driven to rescue Luke, burning for revenge, and eager to fulfill his dreams of a new life over the mountains, Duncan longs to return to the west. Saddled with responsibility for his family, however, and caught up in the unfolding conflict in the east, Duncan must set aside his personal ambitions to defend his family and fight for what he believes in. Will he ever see Luke again?

Set immediately before and during the Revolutionary War, Duncan MacKenzie is the story of one young man’s determination in the face of obstacles.

140,000 words.

Short Stories

Three Old Men in Provence

Where do you go to find yourself when you feel like you’ve lost yourself? The narrator of this story goes back to Provence, where as a young man he felt the most free to be himself. Unexpectedly overhearing a conversation between three very different old men, he discovers his own perspective on problems that he had fled across the ocean to escape, and finds wholeness again.    3,300 words.

Wake

Eric, a young gay man, struggles through bitter and conflicting emotions at the wake for his estranged father, confronting bad memories and processing grief and anger, ultimately finding closure for a violent relationship that he had put out of his life.    4,100 words.

The Diamond or the Rough

At a friend’s party, Tom has to choose between the stocky young man who shares his interests, and the handsome center of attention who has turned his gaze on Tom for the first time in two years. Ultimately he learns more about himself and what he wants in life.    4,000 words.

Change of Plans

In search of his missing brother, Duncan MacKenzie finds assistance from an unexpected new friend. Duncan’s not sure at first if he can trust Jesse Baird, but the young half-blood proves his value in the bitter cold of January in the Monongahela Valley, and sends Duncan’s quest for his brother Luke on a new trajectory.

This story is an excerpt from my novel Duncan MacKenzie.    6,300 words.