Tim Daltrey lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico, with Beth, his radiantly beautiful blonde offspring. An independent businessman and a pillar of the community, he has struggled long and hard to build a good life for him and his daughter, a problem made difficult by the death of his wife a few years before. Pressure begins to build on the hard-working man when his business develops financial troubles, and he finds that even the comfort of his devoted, charming young daughter is barely enough to keep him afloat. Then, with no warning, fate sends a dramatic thunderbolt into their lives in the form of Rose Molina, a sultry, tempestuous woman with whom Tim had an affair in his teenage years before his marriage.In weaving the fabric of this provocative, often brutal social document author Jensen has, with remarkable attention to detail and motivation, sharply outlined not only the dramatic confrontations between the characters, but has taken special pains to make the psychological aspects of their behavior vividly real. What on the surface may seem to be a shocking, perhaps terrifying story of love and revenge, is ultimately revealed as a social thesis of outstanding merit, one which enters the minds of the characters with such uncompromising psychological truth that the reader will feel himself experiencing each dramatic incident as if he himself were actually involved. It is a tale of struggle and conflict, violence and love, hatred and compassion, and although the implications are often hard to swallow, particularly to the sensitive reader, there is no doubt as to its authenticity and urgency. Though some of the events that unfold are, without doubt, tragic in the classic sense of the word, this book is not without hope and promise as well.

2023-03-16