“Tiezzi’s Board” is a new novel set in Old Lyme and Old Saybrook, and there is a bit of World War II history in the story to boot.

The seed for this novel began with a real life event. Woodworker and author Ham Martin of Woodstock purchased an enormous mahogany board from an elderly Italian man, Giordano Tiezzi, in Meriden. The purchase was made in the mid-1990s; Giordano and his brother Dominic had, at the time, owned the board for 50 years.

Ham Martin eventually built and carved a beautiful conference table for a wealthy client with the mahogany, and that same board inspired the book.

According to a forward in Clarion Review, “In Ham Martin’s novel ‘Tiezzi’s Board,’ a gifted yet frustrated woodcarver discovers a magnificent mahogany board whose dark history almost destroys him.”

Martin lived and raised his family in Woodstock for over 40 years. He served as first selectman, was a state Senate candidate, a talk host on WINY radio in Putnam and a columnist for the Observer-Patriot. Martin moved to Maine in 2017.

His debut novel, “Talk Radio,” was a finalist for the 2022 Maine Literary Award in fiction.

For more information, visit www.hammartin.com