Kirjahaku

First thing I noticed was how careful that there fellow was 'bout the grave marker . . . like how he didn't want to track no red clay on top ah that slab what was down by his feet. You know, there ain't many folks now days what really gives a damn if mud and dirt makes things dirty, but I do--that's my job--keep'n this here place pretty. Besides, keep'n things clean ain't really all that hard, no how, not wid my Mama and Daddy both sleep'n down there. But being that I take care of this here place, I wanted to know who that man in that fancy store bought suit might be, so I dropped my sling blade and got up 'hind him. Now I didn't say nothin' mind you . . . jus' stood there an' dun' my best to be quiet, but he up and said sumpt'n first. Reckon I weren't near as quiet as I thought I was. "Bet there's a story just waiting down there to be told," he finally said, and then he tole me his name. Said it was Harold Murray. Yes Sir, "Murray's" what he said, an' he askedMe what be my name. So I went an' tole him I was a Murray, too. "Most all of 'em in here's Murrays," an' pointin' at my Great granddaddy's marker, I said, "Does you wanna hear his story?"

Samuel Elwyn Biggs has fled the life-sucking poverty into which he was born - the hard hammering fist of his drunkard of a father, and his religion-besotted mother. And now he must learn to survive on his own. The gaming halls of Petersburg beckon him. He finds he has a talent with games of chance. From a consumptive and dying old man who cares little for the things he spent a lifetime accruing, Sam wins undeveloped property in the piedmont of North Carolina. He leaves Petersburg behind and enters a world of conflict and encounters a mystery woman named Rose. Sam and Rose wish to marry, but Rose continually delays the wedding. There are secrets that Sam must be told - secrets that can ruin lives. Only Rose can tell Sam of her past. Wrongs must be righted - and there are people who must die for the evil they have become.

This title is not just another book about the Civil War. This is a hard look into the minds of the people who lived in the era prior to the war. It is also a study of why some men fought for the South, while a brother fought for the North. It is a harsh look at the pain death brings to families. The slave issue was not paramount in the outbreak of the war. Everyone had their reasons concerning why a war should be fought, and those reasons tore families apart. Families fought battles and sons and husbands died because of those reasons. Some families never recovered. This in-depth look into a wealthy family of the Antebellum era will show how far the family must go to heal and forget the strife their personal opinions have caused. It is a realistic story-gritty, sad, happy. Love abounds among those who forgive.

Harlan McFaddens life has been a hard walk down a rugged road. Once a lawman, he quit. He harboured no desire to be just another corrupt officer grown rich from the blizzard of drug money they dealt with each day. Pearl Grace, his wife of eight years, spent the entirety of her waking hours floating in the soft ozone haze of a drug-addled mind. The only bright spot in Harlans life was his seven-year-old daughter, Sue Ellen. During divorce proceedings, he'd fought hard for sole custody of his daughter, but lost. Pearl Grace had convinced the man in the long black robe she'd never used drugs -- not so much as an aspirin. Judge Haney read promises of pleasures in her eyes. And Sue Ellen, in an unguarded moment was savagely raped and murdered by a passing illegal alien. Soon after Harlan McFadden recovered from nearly losing his mind, he once again became a man of the law. But the laws he enforced were ones of his own making.