Lucas Smothers, nineteen and from the wrong end of town, has been arrested for the rape and murder of a local girl. His lawyer, former Texas Ranger Billy Bob Holland, is convinced of Lucas’s innocence—but proving it won’t be easy amid the deceit and corruption that spreads like wildfire in a gossipy small town where everybody knows everybody else’s business. That includes the poorly kept secret that Billy Bob isn’t just Lucas’s lawyer but, as the result of an extramarital affair, the boy’s father. As Billy Bob seeks to clear his son’s name, he attracts enemies far more dangerous than any he ever faced as a Ranger.

“A book that will cost you some sleep.”
—San Francisco Chronicle

“[A] fine, multitextured novel, full of Burke’s lilting, elegiac prose and unflinching in its portrait of the human heart in turmoil.”
—Booklist