The Better Man

This compelling novel exposes the undergarments of love and hate that unites and destroys two brothers that battle for the love of one woman - Meredith, a sensuous yet naive young woman with alabaster skin and blazing, auburn-colored hair. Clint, the older brother, is pulled into W.W. II and is thousands of miles away from the prize, and Meredith is left in the care of Stephen. A voluptuous young woman, Donna, with large, innocent-looking blue eyes and unruly, rebellious, brown hair with an uncertain past wants Stephen for herself. Donna's mother, Margaret, is presumed crazy. At night her ghostly, white face can be seen at her open bedroom window. With her long hair flailing in the night air, she rubs her white, cotton nightgown violently as if she is taking a hurried bath. She has a secret, a secret that she will take to her premature death; a secret that once revealed will change Donna's life. Harold Quickbaum, a dishonest junk dealer, attempts to rape Donna, hides in the shadows, and ties his son, Tom, to a tree and violently whips him, because Tom is a "bastard child". All of Quickbaum's scorn and hatred for Tom's mother who disappeared years ago appears as large, festering welts on Tom's back. Quickbaum keeps the prying eyes of the law out of his junkyard with a high fence, ex-cons, and fierce dogs while he makes a killing off the war. The little Illinois town will be shocked by the revenge of a scorned woman. There is more than one prize and may the better man win!