First published 2021
Mary Rose Whitehead finds fourteen-year-old Gloria Ramírez on her ranch porch in the early morning hours after Valentine's Day 1976. The girl is broken and barely alive after a vicious assault in a nearby oil field. Odessa, Texas sits on the edge of the next big oil boom, where men chase prosperity while women live with the violence that follows. The attack becomes the subject of judgment in local churches and bars before any court can hear the case. When the legal system fails to deliver justice, one woman decides to act on her own. Her choice sets up a confrontation that could destroy lives. The story unfolds through multiple women's perspectives as they navigate the aftermath of the crime. Each voice reveals how violence, race, and class intersect in this small Texas oil town. The women find themselves caught between their vulnerability and their strength, discovering that the stories they tell themselves become their lifeline through darkness.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, crime, contemporary
Vibes: emotional, intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: social-commentary, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Odessa, Texas
Period: 1976
368 pages · Paperback · Rayo
Content warnings: abuse, sexual-assault, violence