Former Hampshire Professor Publishes Thriller About the Opioid Crisis and War on Drugs
Betsy Hartmann, who taught developmental studies at Hampshire for 28 years, releases her newest book, Last Place Called Home, a novel that dramatically brings to life the human realities of the U.S. drug crisis.
“Hartmann has crafted an intimate page turner that reveals the relation between drug policy and the economy of despair while confronting the fraying bonds between youthful friends, and between parents and their children. Last Place Called Home is a nail-biting drama of loss and redemption,” writes activist and writer on drug policy Bill Fried.
In the hard-pressed mill town of Stanton, Massachusetts, the reader meets some of the people behind the grim statistic that more than 100,000 Americans die annually from drug overdoses. Today one in three U.S. adults knows someone who lost their life this way. Yet the opioid crisis remains shrouded in secrecy and stigma, and harm reduction efforts receive far fewer resources than the floundering war on drugs.
Hartmann’s Stanton is a battlefield in the drug war. The local police have been drawn into Operation Snakehead, a covert federal task force targeting the fentanyl trade. As danger mounts, three mothers — newspaper reporter Laura Everett, businesswoman Mimi Sullivan, and machinist Angie Gillen — must confront their pasts and overcome their differences to keep their troubled teenagers out of the crossfire. Help comes from two Stanton cops who break ranks after learning Snakehead’s hidden agenda. As Mimi’s daughter sinks further into heroin addiction, Laura and Angie’s sons try to save her, but their efforts only place her more at risk. Ultimately, the deadly violence threatening the community compels Laura to dig deep within herself for the power to take charge.
A finalist in mystery/suspense fiction in the 2024 International Book Awards and a finalist in the political thriller category the 2024 American Fiction Awards, Last Place Called Home is a story about resilience, love, and loyalty to family, friends, and place.
Hartmann writes both fiction and nonfiction about critical social issues. She is the author of the feminist classic Reproductive Rights and Wrongs: The Global Politics of Population Control and of The America Syndrome: Apocalypse, War and Our Call to Greatness. Eerily prescient, her two political thrillers, The Truth about Fire and Deadly Election, explore the threat the Far Right poses to American democracy.
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