This book paints a vivid picture of life in the Sandhills just a decade after the massacre at Wounded Knee. The Sandhills and ranch life are a character of their own in this book, and one of the better characters too. Beauty and bleakness, weather extremes, livestock and the layout of ranch buildings are described with great detail tensions between the Indians and the settlers so soon after Wounded Knee are also constantly in the background bringing this time and this place to life. Into this local rancher JB Bennett is discovered dead alongside the shallow grave of a young Native American girl, bringing the Bennett's and their family issues together, JB's estranged wife Dulcinea returns, JB's despicable father Drum breaks his ankle and has to stay in JB's house, and the two sons who while still young have been raised apart become mixed up with Rose, the murdered girls older sister, and the search for their killers, family disputes over the ranch, and oil and gas speculators wanting to force ranchers to sell their mineral rights. While some of the "main" plotlines are less than satisfying I enjoyed this book and it's look at Sandhills life around the turn of the 20th century. I would rate this book 3.5 stars if Goodreads allowed half stars.