"Joshua Rabb, hero of Richard Parrish's acclaimed The Dividing Line, returns - to a maze of ruthless greed, seductive sex, savage violence, and baffling mystery that extends from the Arizona Indian reservation where he works to a Mexican killing ground that would be his grave." "The time is the late 1940s, and Rabb, physically scarred by combat in World War II and emotionally torn by the death of his wife, seems on the verge of getting his life together. He is practicing law to supplement his pay from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, his two children have adjusted to life in the Southwest far from their native Brooklyn, and the people of the vast Papago Indian reservation have given him their heartfelt trust." "Then a cholera epidemic among the Papagos and Rabb's first case as an Arizona lawyer combine to shatter his hard-won sense of haven and happiness. And in court, Rabb must defend a man who he becomes convinced is a vicious rapist and killer. To protect the Papagos from contamination of the source of their river water, he must supervise the awarding of a bitterly contested multi-million-dollar construction contract for a sewage system in Mexico. This involves him with George Callan, who has won the contract with a suspiciously low bid; with Diana Thurber, Callan's stunning niece, whose love affair with Rabb seems too good to be true; with a rival construction firm who will stop at nothing to prove Callan is a crook and Rabb is a dupe; with a Mexican governor who gives new meaning to the concept of corruption; and a sadistic police chief out to break Rabb. At every twist in the trail of the elusive truth, Rabb faces one fresh falsehood after another, leaving him with no answers, only growing horror." "Soon Rabb's life and that of his young son are put in deadly jeopardy. His daughter loses faith in him for fighting to defend the accused killer-rapist. And in the arms of Diana Thurber he has trouble resisting a passion that seems increasingly suspect. If he ever finds his way out of this nightmare, he will have passed his ultimate test as a man and as a lawyer. Crafted by a brilliant storyteller, this compelling legal thriller is as highly charged as the questions of conscience it probes."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved