In THE WIDOW'S PRAYER - the first installment of a planned duology - a promising college football player named Walter Brogan steps off a train on a freezing night in northern Indiana. It is 1920. There he is greeted by a priest and his uncle with tragic news. His father, a police officer, has been killed in a raid while enforcing the country's new Prohibition law. Forced to assume the mantle of his household, young Brogan's gridiron dreams - and his youth - are over. Four years later, Brogan is beginning a new life in the automotive service industry with a young bride and a fresh outlook. But the shadow of his German-American father-in-law, a successful entrepreneur and now his employer, is extensive. Far from the glitz of urban centers at the height of the Roaring Twenties, Brogan struggles to establish himself on his own terms, and begins to form a bond with the working class Hoosiers that surround him. By his side is Greta, a graceful and strong woman, whose fierce love for Brogan and sharp intellect give her the fortitude to go toe-to-toe with her father - or with anyone else. Nursing higher aspirations, Brogan considers striking out on his own. But there are enemies aligning against his way of life, and the world at large is plummeting unknowingly towards economic peril and global war. Inspired by the life of the author's paternal grandfather, ONLY THE DYING is an ambitious, American story - a tale of family, faith, and the unsung lives of the modest, determined people that sustained a nation through its darkest times.