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By April Smith

They say good things come in great packages. Well…if the cover of this one doesn’t scare you and make you want to jump right in and get started, than you’re not paying attention.

It is 1985 and Jo Kusek is returning to Rapid City, South Dakota after twenty years. The daughter of a couple by the name of Cal and Betsy Kusek, Jo is only returning to see her brother and his young son who were left in critical condition after a tragic home invasion that took the life of Lance’s wife. Once there, Jo finds herself immersed in a strange situation that involves family skeletons stumbling out of the closet.

It was in 1950 that an optimistic and perhaps naïve couple, Cal and Betsy Kusek, waved goodbye to the Big Apple and settled on a cattle ranch in South Dakota, running right into some fanatics during the frenzied time of the McCarthy era.

Cal, a Yale educated lawyer and former WWII fighter pilot, and Betsy, a nurse who had belonged to the Communist Party when she was a teenager, initially moved to Rapid City with their two children because Cal’s Army buddy, Scotty, lived there. After buying a small ranch, Cal started to develop a political career. Unfortunately, Cal was a dedicated Democrat in a purely Republican area which meant his career was not working out all that well.

As he continued to fight, a seat opened in the State Assembly and Cal jumped at the chance, ending up serving three terms. Sadly, things turn bad when Betsy is investigated by the FBI for being a Communist and the entire town turns against the Kusek family.

Why would that have anything to do with a murder 35 years later? You’ll have to read this fantastic suspense and find out!