Phil Hardwick 
Major Works
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Biography of Phil Hardwick
By Walt Goree (SHS)
Phil Hardwick was born on June 20, 1948. Early in life,
Hardwick realized the power of literature as he read from the
Progressive Farmer and the Readers' Digest
to his illiterate grandfather. This was the first step
in Hardwick's journey to becoming a writer. Later, when
Hardwick was in the eleventh grade, he hurt his knee.
Seemingly a setback because now he couldn't play football,
he took up journalism. His journalism teacher said that
he was a born writer (Hardwick).
Hardwick harbored dreams of law enforcement so after high
school he worked with the FBI while attending night school at
Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi. In my
interview with him, Hardwick said that nothing much related
to writing happened while he was in college. Over the
next several years, little happened to suggest that one day
Hardwick would be an author. He joined the armed forces
during which time he served as head of security for the presidential
helicopter. Little by little, he began to gain attention as
an investigator on the Mississippi Real Estate Commission (Hardwick).
Then, in 1985, he was contacted by the Mississippi Business
Journal and asked to write an article. Today he
still writes regularly for that magazine. Now the time
was right, Hardwick's expertise in the fields of law enforcement,
real estate, and writing, were all about to come together in
a small Mississippi town called Flora.
Hardwick and others were attempting to come up
with a way to promote the town of Flora's tourism in a manner
other than the usual boring pamphlets, billboards, and the like
when they struck upon the idea of a book (promotional fiction),
as Hardwick calls it (Frasier). The book set in
the town of Flora not only gave information about the town,
but it was also a book that had a great story as well.
Thus was born Found in Flora. Well, the
idea worked. Hardwick wrote a great mystery that promoted
a great town. His work did not go unnoticed, and he was
later approached by representatives from other towns, asking
him to do for them what he had done for Flora. Out came
the Mississippi Mysteries Series,
a beautiful set of books, each set in and promoting a Mississippi
town. To date (2000) he has written seven mystery
books about towns in Mississippi. Hardwick is not just
getting calls from towns in Mississippi any more. In an interview
for the Daily Corinthian, Hardwick
said, "...I've got some very large towns outside of Mississippi
that have expressed an interest.
In addition to authoring books, as of this writing, Hardwick
is vice president of Community and Economic Development for
the Mississippi Valley Gas Company. He also teaches real estate
as an adjunct faculty member at Millsaps College. That's pretty
much it for now, so what's to come from Mr. Hardwick in the
future? Only time will tell. (See UPDATE below).
2008 UPDATE: Phil Hardwick is
currently Coordinator of Capacity Development at the John C.
Stennis Institute of Government atMississippi State University.
In addition, he is president of The Hardwick Company, which
provides strategic planning, goal-setting, and related services
to corporate and nonprofit clients. He has written three new
books: Cover-Up in Columbus, Sixth Inning in Southaven,
and Letters from Lexington, and is a member of
Mystery Writers of America.
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A Review
of Conspiracy in Corinth
by Walt Goree (SHS)
In Conspiracy in Corinth, Phil Hardwick paints a vivid picture of a homey little town nestled in the northeast corner of Mississippi, a town filled with  controversy. Jack Boulder, the best P.I. in the state, gets a troubling phone message. It's from Pace McHatten Sr., the father of Boulder's best friend in Vietnam, the man Boulder let die in his arms. Pace never forgave Boulder for this, but now as a prominent attorney, Pace needed the best P.I. there was to help clear one of his clients of murder. The relationship between Boulder and McHatten makes for an interesting subplot to this riveting mystery/thriller.
The plot thickens as Boulder smells a cover-up. Was this death a suicidal overdose of acetametaphine, as everyone seemed to think, was it a poisoning by a distraught and over controlled husband, or was it even acetametaphine that killed this woman at all? All this, coupled with great historical information on some of the local buildings and sights, and an addiction to banana pudding, makes for the best novella I've read in recent memory.
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Related Websites
Author Phil Hardwick's
home page.
Mississippi
State announces Phil Hardwick's position with Stennis Institute.
Information
about newest book Letters from Lexington.
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Left: Phil Hardwick talks for Starkville Reads
in 2007.
Bibliography
Hardwick, Phil. Telephone interview. April 17, 2000.
Johnston, Jebb. "Murder Mystery Novella set in Corinth." Daily Corinthian Apr. 11. 1999, late ed.: 1A-2A.
Frasier, Jim. "Hardwick Writes a New Type of Thriller."
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