Beautiful, Dirty, Rich

Families torn apart by greed and duplicity, characters driven by blinding passion, toe-curling sex, and a moral compass that goes with the flow: Mason (One Day I Saw a Black King) doesn’t disappoint with this soap opera yarn of an everywoman wrongfully convicted of murder 26 years earlier. Now, with a $20 million inheritance in the bank, Desi Green wants to tell the truth about the sensational Blink, Tex., murder case that left Julian Gatewood dead and Desi’s mother, Ida, Gatewood’s lover, loaded. “All anybody thinks is that she was a home wrecker, and he was a cheat who had the misfortune of getting shot for his troubles.” But Desi knows, “There’s so much more,” including a murderous judge, a slave-trader cop, and bribes to convict Desi of killing Gatewood, “that beautiful, dirty, rich bastard” whom Desi and Ida adored. Desi and conniving pal Lonnie go up against Gatewood’s scion Jordan—a J.R. Ewing for the 21st century—and addled widow Olivia to expose family secrets and find the real killer. Mason’s characters create an addictive drama with universal themes of laying claim to family—and to truth. Agent: Sara Camilli. (July)