The Undiscovered Country : A Novel

Winner of the Beverly Hills Book Award for Southern Fiction: "A precise, elaborate tale that shows just how menacing a family's history can be" ( Kirkus Reviews ). When Randle's mother becomes critically ill he rushes to her bedside to comfort her. As he puts her affairs in order, he expects to face long-suppressed memories and contemptuous siblings, but he does not expect to discover that in her younger years, while he was an unaware child, his mother was a feisty, courageous woman who bravely battled an abusive husband and made fateful decisions for the good of her children. Now she wants nothing more than to die with dignity, with her secrets intact. But Randle learns that her husband was not his birth father, that a wealthy man who is being extorted claims to be his birth father, and his mother hopes to take the secret of his biological father's true identity to her grave. As he grapples with the implications for his own identity, Randle uncovers a murder no one knew had been committed and struggles to protect the unwitting man who intends to bequeath him millions of dollars. When he unravels his mother's dark secrets he unlocks his own demons and is left with the agonizing choice between revenge and greed or forgiveness. "An intriguing who-done-it story that critiques antiquated social practices and values while remaining affectionate to its Georgia setting... A story centered on an all-around Southern family, complete with all the dying pageantry and tradition of passing generations in a changing South." — Deep South magazine