No End of Guilty Creatures

Book excerpt: THE TROUBLE BEGAN ON GRANITE LEDGE FARM WHEN NATE BREWSTER WAS FOUND DEAD, face down on the ledge where the ladder fell from the barn roof with him on it. His wife, Patience, contends it was nothing more than an unfortunate accident. The authorities believe otherwise and charge her brother-in-law and her two nephews with murder. The court convicts only one man. But insurance investigator Benjamin B. Beach is more tenacious and he refuses to believe the conclusions. Beach is positive Nates fall was not an accident, the real killer was not identified, and Patience was covering up for her relatives in court. So the arrogant man attacks the vulnerable woman, fully expecting to extract the truth by grilling her for the facts. Drawing support from Cleve, an attentive neighbor whose wife has left him, and Molly, her devoted English setter and best friend, Patience resists her latest aggressor and defends her dysfunctional clan. Disguising shocking conflicts within the family, wily Patience duels with Beach. As the resilient woman skillfully manipulates her interrogator away from the truth, she reconsiders the familys hidden secrets and, choosing the high road, she escapes from her life of oppression in a way she never expected.