Picked this up because of the title and the jacket description. Was totally into it until the last 1/3 of the book where I became lost as to what was the meaning behind this story. Where was it going? And then it ended so abruptly. Still not sure how I feel about it... ( )

I hadn't read Boyd since her Mourning The Death of Magic back in 1977 (!) and picked this one up because I remembered the earlier novel, and also - who could resist such a title? Turned out to be very worth while, and that this is the third in a series of stories about Ellen Burns. A lesbian who sleeps with men, and with anyone appealing who crosses her path, she's a supercharged libido-driven fascinating woman, who would have been termed a "good broad" back in the Rat Pack days. Here, she finds out that her brother's daughter has murdered her two children, and that her brother, a white supremacist tied in with Timothy McVeigh's cohorts, is still alive twenty years he was thought to have died in a fire similar to the Branch Davidian episode. There's a lot of good factual information about these terrorists, and a painful and powerful exploration of the impact of these beliefs on the country and on Ellen's family. The mystery, and the challenges to Ellen's longtime sobriety that result, makes for an excellent and thoughtful read. ( )