In the Heart of the Beast

"Rife shines in making 1970s Texas and the border country a character in its own right, from fading cantina lights spilling across the raw dirt streets of Nuevo Laredo to the B-BAR-B in the Permian Basin, where American cars sit at angles outside the concrete-block honky-tonk. Intelligently written and atmospheric, readers who enjoy exceptional historical fiction will adore this." - Readers' Favorite

Austin, Texas, 1976. The Bicentennial lights the sky, but shadows run deep. Michael Duval, scion turned radical, navigates a city and a family torn between fading idealism and hard-edged ambition. When a murder shatters the fragile equilibrium of the local drug trade, Michael plunges into a labyrinth of arms, betrayal, and rivalries, propelling his partners, friends, family, and a revolutionary cause into a collision course with chaos.

From Michael's mansion to two-lane blacktops stretching across Texas, every choice fractures loyalties and exposes the raw edges of ambition, class, and power. As alliances fail, and dangers escalate, this band of diverse characters must confront the cost of their own ideals and the ever-present nature of the "beast" at the heart of it all.

A gripping, morally complex novel of family, friends, revolution, and the fading dreams of a generation.

"...a human tapestry rich with compassionate insight into human frailty and desire, its threads illuminated with lucidity and truth." -- Colin Kersey, The Secret of Charley Grace, Swimming with the Angels, and Soul Catcher

"....a rare kind of novel that manages to be both action-oriented and intellectually demanding." -- John Dresser-Carollo, The Unknown Composer