2024 Independent Author Award Winner for best Medical Thriller
Hawksbill
Press
Novels By
Mark Anthony Powers
A Swarm in May is the debut novel of a doctor and beekeeper and weaves systemic racism, Little League baseball, and the art and science of beekeeping into a riveting medical mystery.
In Breath and Mercy, witness challenges in a doctor’s training, the frightening birth of the HIV pandemic, and the struggle to provide ethical care during an epic disaster. Breath and Mercy is the prequel to Mark Anthony Powers’s bestselling debut novel, A Swarm in May, and the first book in the Phineas Mann series.
In Nature’s Bite, we enter 2024 with its worsening climate change and political polarization. A mysterious visit from FBI agents interrupts Phineas’ evening. His work as the Principal Investigator in a Phase 3 trial of a novel asthma drug begins with Marie Porter, a young doctor with a hidden past. Then, as an affliction surfaces to hinder Phineas’ abilities, the two doctors become embroiled, against their wishes, in intrigue at the highest levels.
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The Phineas Mann series offers the reader medical thrillers spanning fifty years.
In Breath and Mercy, we meet medical student Phineas Mann in 1976 as he witnesses death for the first time. Years later and fresh from specialty training in pulmonary and intensive care, he is forced to make agonizing life and death medical decisions during the aftermath of a cataclysmic hurricane. These decisions threaten his career and family and will haunt his future.
A Swarm in May is set in 1998, and an unexpected visitor from Phineas’ past arrives in his intensive care unit. He is forced to confront her companion, a violent racist who is the son of his critically ill patient with tetanus. When the elderly father has unexplained setbacks, the racist son escalates threats against the medical team to horrifying levels.
We enter 2024 in Nature’s Bite with its worsening climate change and political polarization. A mysterious visit from FBI agents interrupts Phineas’ evening. His work as the Principal Investigator in a Phase 3 trial of a novel asthma drug begins with Marie Porter, a young doctor with a past. Then, as an affliction surfaces to hinder Phineas’ abilities, the two doctors become embroiled, against their wishes, in intrigue at the highest levels.
In The Desperate Trials of Phineas Mann, Dr. Phineas Mann has been brought low by late stage and rapidly progressive Parkinson’s Disease when he enters a radical experimental trial to insert programmed stem cells into his brain. But will he stay alive long enough to use his keen eye and medical knowledge to confront deadly medical threats to a congressman, a close friend, and his beloved wife, Iris?
About the Author
Mark Anthony Powers
Mark Anthony Powers is an award-winning author who grew up in the small town of West Lebanon, NH. At Cornell University, he branched out into Creative Writing and Russian while majoring in engineering. After receiving his M.D. from Dartmouth, he went south to the University of North Carolina for an internship and residency in Internal Medicine, followed by a fellowship in Pulmonary Diseases and Critical Care Medicine.
After almost forty years in clinical practice and teaching, he retired from Duke University as an Associate Professor Emeritus of Medicine and began his exploration of other parts of his brain. Writing classes, writers’ groups, and growing fruit and vegetables were some of the enjoyment that followed. A deep dive into beekeeping led to his presidency of the county beekeeping association and certification as a Master Beekeeper.
Two cups of coffee and two hours of writing most mornings produced the medical thrillers in his Phineas Mann series: A Swarm in May, Breath and Mercy, Nature’s Bite, and, The Desperate Trials of Phineas Mann.
His newest book was shortlisted for The Hawthorne Prize in Fiction and is the 2024 Independent Author Award Winner for best Medical Thriller.
Podcast Interviews & Blog Articles Featuring Mark
Bestselling author Mark Anthony Powers shares his story of retiring from pulmonary medicine and embracing writing.
Curious Creatrix Podcast
Not a lot of time discussing the furniture!
Be Raw Podcast
The Kimberly Cloud Show featuring Mark Anthony Powers
The Kimberly Cloud Show Podcast
The Writer's Room Guest Mark A. Powers
Run Radio Podcast
Author Interview with Mark Anthony Powers
Ripollsworkshop Reads Podcast
Interview with Mark Anthony Powers
Morgan the Quaid Podcast
Give Bees a Chance
Durham Master Gardener Blog
Swarm Season Cometh
Durham Master Gardener Blog
Rabbits
Fictional Short Story
Contact Mark
For more information or to set up an interview, please contact Mark here.