Midnight Road
"Old Trails was ugly of frame, face and temper. For the life of me, I couldn't understand how he could have sired Samal. Not that Sam didn't have a temper, too. She had a short fuse and could cuss a blue streak. Her tantrum storms were short-lived, usually, but they were entertaining while they lasted. The only thing wrong with her that I could see was that she turned into a creature of soft curves...."
So begins the story of 15-year-old Jeff Carr as he begins to grow up one Texas summer, and face some of the harsh truths around him. Everyone says he favors easy-going Kenty Hooker more than his own dad, Bant Carr, but folks always have to have something to talk about. Jeff's got other things on his mind--like Sam, who is turning into a woman in front of him; and her brother Coy, whose mean streak is suddenly getting a lot wider. And Fergus, the brother they don't talk about; the one who lives under the house to avoid the beatings of Coy and Old Trails. But while Jeff is making the Trails family his business, Bant is nursing a brooding pain that will soon explode into violence. That year, none of their lives will ever be the same.