text: Generations of hate come together in this book.  Pete Braga killed Franklin McMichael dead in a claim of self-defense in the summer of 1952.  The next generation carried on the tradition when Gabriel McMichael supposedly beat Pete's son, Victor, so severely that he suffered permanent brain damage, rendering him with the IQ of a ten-year old.  The third generation was na?e to all this hatred when Thomas McMichael fell in love with Pete's granddaughter Patricia.  The love of his life was driven away at a young age when Grandfather Pete refused to permit their love to blossom.  While the McMichael family existed in near poverety, the Braga family thrived in power and money.
  
  So now Thomas has a problem.  The root of all his family's hatred, Pete Braga, has been found dead.  He was murdered by someone at his home.  Thomas has been assigned the case to find out who wanted the old man dead.  Given his many enemies, the list of suspects is long.  It doesn't help that the first suspect, Sally Rainwater...Pete's personal nurse, becomes the object of Thomas' heart as the investigation unravels. 
  
  The story twists and turns through many leads and many unexpected plot points as Thomas McMichael is determined, despite his family's hatred of Pete, to find out who is behind the killing and why.  Author T. Jefferson Parker does an excellent job in keeping the reader involved and interested in the story with his enthralling style.  
  
  Frederick A. Babb
  