The Big House: Story of a Southern Family

Minnie leaves boarding school to spend the summer at The Big House, her cherished Grandpa's home. She enjoys adventure, but she also learns of the dangers posed by the land and a river that can seduce the unwary. The arrival of Minnie's great-grandmother provides her with a fearless female role model as well as tales of the elderly woman's antebellum past and how she survived the Civil War.

In 1928, Minnie's mother, Nora, arrives at her nursing college after abandoning her a few years ago as a child. What does Nora want? An unexpected visit to Grandpa and Marie at the Big House offers Minnie shelter and refuge, but no longer the carefree days of her youthful experiences there. She discovers secrets. Shrewd and hidden manipulations of power ensure the survival of the Big House in this small Southern town, where a smile can mask suppressed rage and hostility.

Book three of the ongoing Big House saga erupts against the backdrop of the violent, strife-torn Arkansas Delta during the Great Depression. Terror, deception, and intrigue test Minnie's and her mother Nora's determination to return to the roots of their heritage. Though scorned by men of all classes who have the misguided notion that women cannot run a plantation, Minnie and Nora's grit is unyielding. Bound to the women's desire to save the land is their vow to settle the score against those who viciously attacked their family.

By late 1936, the worst years of the Great Depression are over. Wealth has created new opportunities for Minnie: a beautiful home in California, a luxury car, the yearning desire by a handsome lieutenant, and the family’s summer retreat, which draws her like a magnet. Secrets abound. A hidden bohemian community of writers, poets, artists, and escapists is scattered across the shifting coastal dunes near the cottage.