In this page-turning novel set in the Depression-era South, New York Times bestselling author Mary Monroe transports readers to a small Alabama town where home is not always a sanctuary, and two neighboring families let pleasantries mask increasing resentment ...
Bootlegging was Milton and Yvonne Hamiltonโs ticket out of poverty, prison time, and plain bad luck. Now theyโve moved onโto a bigger, richer pool of clienteleโright in their own respectable new middle-class backyard. And their growing friendship with seemingly perfect couple Joyce and Odell Watson is proving golden in more ways than one ...
As Milton soon learns, Odell is hiding an outside family and dubious business dealings. Itโs the perfect recipe for a blackmail scheme that will help Milton hide his own dirty secretsโeven from Yvonne. Better yet, he can take ever more dangerous risks to ace out his liquor-smuggling rivalsโand add a lucrative temptation to his illicit services. And Yvonne, emboldened by her husbandโs new gravy train, delights in tormenting Joyce about everything the snobbish matron doesnโt haveโespecially children.
But even a winning hand can be played too far. Pushed past their limits, Odell and Joyce will play on Miltonโs careless boastingโto get him and Yvonne out of their lives for good ...