Stuart Woods's Edgar Award-winning debut novel--a classic American mystery saga about three generations of lawmen tangled in a web of passion, secrets, destiny, and murder in their small Southern town...

In the winter of 1920, the first body is found in Delano, Georgie--the naked, brutalized corpse of a young boy. It is a crime too horrific to be ignored, the first of many that will span four decades--embroiling three police chiefs in a remarkable manhunt that will expose the hatreds, fear, and festering wounds beneath the surface of their sleepy God-fearing community.