For generations Burroughs men have owned and ruled the
Northern Georgia mountains known as Bull Mountain with their own style of
justice and an economy built on moonshine, marijuana and meth. The youngest son of the sole surviving
brother, Clayton, has chosen to live in the valley in the shadow of the
mountain as the sheriff, having come to an uneasy truce with his eldest,
cruelest brother. An affable stranger
arrives in town and tells Clayton he has a plan that will allow his brother to
get out of the business without retribution or consequence. Clayton believes FBI agent Simon Holly and
his motivations and agrees to approach his brother. What is touched off, however, shakes Clayton
Burroughs to the core, in his gut knowing that he has set off something from
which there will be no return, in which there can be no winners, only losers
that pay with their lives. A new voice
in Southern gothic noir, Panowich draws readers in and lulls them into a false
sense of comfort with his descriptions of the fog filled, loamy mountain and
then blindsides the reader with unexpected venom and violence, from which there
is no looking away. Fathers and sons,
brothers and uncles, the relationships are not easy and comfortable and the
women these men possess, and in Clayton’s case love, must rise to the challenge
or lose everything in the process. In the
end, all there is is family, but it is the family we choose that shapes who we
are and how we love.
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