Author Sets Second Novel in her Adopted Beacon Hill Neighborhood

By Dan Murphy

While Karen Winn set her first novel in a fictionalized depiction of her New Jersey hometown, ‘The Society,’ her second full-length work of fiction published by Dutton and out now, instead takes place in her adopted neighborhood of Beacon Hill.

Winn grew up in Mendham, a small town in Morris County, N.J., about 45 minutes outside of Manhattan. She received an MFA from Fairleigh Dickinson University and previously worked as a nurse in the surgical ICU at Mass General Hospital. After leaving that position, she  went back to school for  her master’s and doctoral degrees in nursing before becoming a nurse practitioner. Winn, also a mother of two, had been quietly working on her first novel in her spare time for a number of years as well, but she didn’t commit herself to finishing a first draft of it until 2016.

Her first novel, ‘Our Little World,’ published by Dutton in 2022, was a mystery and coming-of-age story that focused on a small girl who goes missing from a lake in suburban New Jersey in 1985. (Despite the timeframe of the story, Winn is admittedly a child of the 1980s and ’90s.)  The novel’s fictional small town of Hammend, N.J., has a population of 5,000, just like Mendham, while the name itself is anagram for Winn’s hometown.

In contrast, ‘The Society’ is set on Beacon Hill, which is home to the fictional Knox Society – a shadowy, exclusive organization comprised of Boston’s old-money elite that dates back centuries. When Vivian Lawrence loses her family fortune, she sets out on a quest to investigate a family legend that links her kin to this secret society.

 The initial seeds for ‘The Society’ were sown for Winn during a visit to The Boston Athenaeum – a longstanding membership library located across Beacon Street from the State House.

During a guided tour of the library, Winn spotted an oil painting of Thomas Handasyd Perkins, a merchant and philanthropist from a wealthy Boston Brahmin family who funded several local institutions, including the Museum of Fine Arts and Massachusetts General Hospital, as well as the Atheneum itself.

Her curiosity piqued, Winn began researching Perkins, only to discover he made much of his fortune dealing in the opium trade. Winn said she then began envisioning the Atheneum, which she has belonged to for several years through a family membership, as a secret society where wealthy Brahmins involved in the opium trade met to conduct covert business dealings.

The Knox Building, located on Mount Vernon Street with a fictional street in back that closely mirrors Branch Street, is home to the novel’s enigmatic organization.

“The Knox Building is a character itself in the book and takes on the persona of an old Beacon Hill snob,” said Winn, adding that she has given the building its own voice. “It was really fun to write.”

Storied Antiques, the fictional antiques shop owned by Lawrence in the novel, closely resembles the real-life Fabled Antiques at 93 Charles St.

Winn interviewed Fabled Antique’s owner, Rebecca Connolly Hackler, to accurately reflect the innerworkings of running a retail antiques business on Beacon Hill. (In her novel, Storied Antiques is located on Pinckney Street, just around the corner from the actual location of Fabled Antiques, Winn noted.)

While investigating the novel’s secret society, Lawrence, who lives at in a penthouse apartment at a fictional address on Lime Street, succumbs to a suspicious fall that lands her in the Emergency Room at Mass General Hospital. A young nurse there, named Taylor Adams, hears Lawrence’s story, and after Lawrence goes missing,  Adams begins following the trail herself, visiting a number of actual Beacon Hill locales along the way.

“I wanted to include places I frequent, but I was also thinking about the characters and the places they would frequent,” said Winn, who added she also wanted to give ‘shout-outs’ to a few of her favorite neighborhood businesses.

Adams, who has a “penchant for luxury items,” according to Winn, is a loyal patron of Covet at 109 Charles St., while Crush Boutique, another high-end clothing consignment shop located at 138 Charles St., also makes a cameo in ‘The Society.’

A neighborhood restaurant, 1928 Beacon Hill, is memorably featured in the novel as well.

“I love 1928’s Library Room,” she said. “It’s so magical with books hanging from the ceiling, and I thought there’s no more perfect place for a first date than this room.”

And in recognition of the publication of Winn’s second novel, 1928 Beacon Hill will be adding a specialty cocktail called “The Society” to its menu for a limited time.

‘The Society’ also briefly visits (or at least mentions) a range of other real-life Beacon Hill locales, including Townhouse Beauty Bar, Cheers Bar, Anton’s Cleaners, Rouvalis Flower Shop, Beacon Hill Books, Toscano’s, and even The Vilna Shul, among other places in the neighborhood.

Although ‘The Society’ has only just been published, Winn, who also still does some healthcare consulting work on the side, already has an idea for her next novel, and she even sets the stage for it in her latest work.

Winn’s still-untitled third novel will focus on Nicholas – a minor character from ‘The Society’ and proprietor of Turned Pages, a fictional Downtown Crossing bookstore.

Nicholas first emerged as the main character in a short story that has “lived on my computer for many years,” said Winn, and “now, I’m finally ready to bring him to life in a book format.”

The Knox Building is also very likely to make a return appearance in her third novel, along with the secret society itself, as Winn continues to expand her burgeoning literary universe.

‘The Society’ is now available at local bookstores, as well as at Barnes & Noble stores and via Amazon, among other online retailers.