The Thanksgiving Virgin

Book excerpt: Desperate lives collide on a cold November night as a yearlong Missouri tale culminates deep in the belly of a decade Ozark storm where one world ends and another begins. A young man's parents disappear, spilling him into the drug-running streets of Kansas City. He gathers a large sum for his troubles while struggling with addiction, a weak heart, and thoughts of going straight. An Ozark bootlegger finds instant profit making white crystal in an earthen compound near a ranch close to the Arkansas line. He chases his next payday with a long-wanted murderer watching his back. A wealthy Ozark rancher absorbs the reality of spending life without the guiding light of his one true love, when a woman from nowhere appears in his small town. A longtime ranch hand seeks full partnership, holding off a banker and harboring a satchel of found money. A sheriff in his last days of service struggles with courage, facing the specter of a man who nearly killed him six years ago. A quiet loner descends from the hilltops to settle a score, leaving an isolated society to pick up the pieces after tragedy turns on one of its own. . and then comes Thanksgiving.