Branded

In the first Cavanaugh Brothers contemporary western romance, Wright creates an idealized image of a modern working ranch. Deacon Cavanaugh is estranged from his family and the ranch he grew up on. He returns to attend his father's funeral and to begin the process of demolishing his childhood home, hoping to erase the history he left behind, including the unsolved murder of his sister and the implosion of his family following her death. Mackenzie Byrd, the ranch foreman and his sister's best friend, intends to save the ranch, no matter what it might cost Deacon and his brothers. Wright embraces the slow, ambling tone of rural Texas while peppering the story with passages more suited to the therapist's office than the barnyard or bedroom. Plot threads are opened but remain unresolved, presumably to be taken up in future volumes. While the ending flirts with a satisfying conclusion, the final passage will leave readers unsatisfied. (June)