As much romance novel as mystery, author Haines creates steamy tension in a small Mississippi town where fixed class inequities, closetsful of secrets, and lust, both degenerate and natural, overheat the atmosphere.

The big man in town, from a financial and control standpoint, is Lucas Bramlett, as demanding and callous a man as they come. It's small wonder that his beautiful wife Marlena is cheating on him with a trip out to the woods with her daughter Suzanna to meet Big Johnny, a salesman from another town.

But the planned picnic and clandestine role in the hay turns to tragedy and mystery when two hooded men grab Suzanna and viciously assault Marlena beyond recognition. When she's found, naked and on the edge of life, Marlena's secret half-sister Jade, a white-skinned beauty with mixed blood and deep understanding, stays with her in the hospital. In a coma, Marlena struggles for survival, until she awakens and gives Jade a few clues about her attackers. Hubby, meanwhile, sits home waiting for a ransom call that never comes.

Contrasting against slightly mad and definitely dangerous bullies like Junior Clements, Sheriff deputy Frank Kimble treats Jade with uncommon respect. As the only capable investigator in the area, stemming from his military training, he's the main refuge of decency in a foreboding atmosphere that grows more combustible by the minute. But, while Jade finds him the only man with whom a relationship can be more than sex and passion, she contemplates the dangers of forbidden mixed-race romance.

Haines' 1950s town is a swamp of cruelty and evil in which fear and apprehension breed like ticks, and love asserts itself against prevailing prejudice. If it sounds a bit like a cliche' it's because you'll find much similarity in the Harlequin catalogue.