Look Away from Evil

A death in the family calls Laura Kate O'Connell home to South Georgia from Scotland, where she is reporting on a story. This is the third time in four years her career has been interrupted for a tragedy in her dwindling family. Since childhood she's sensed an unpleasant undercurrent in "one of the craziest family setups this side of Louisiana." The death of her beloved uncle spurs her to find out what's causing it.

Her cousin, John Langey, a writer, picks her up at the Atlanta airport. As they head south, John tells her more about the patriarch of her powerful Southern aristocratic family, and his two wives, than she'd ever known. Still, she struggles to understand why Wallace Langey divorced her mother's sister, Eleanor O'Connell, and married Margot Watts. Did Eleanor reject him? Did he love the beautiful Margot that much? Or was it something more sinister?

For over thirty years Wallace's two families have lived on the same plantation, Live Oaks, hating each other. Laura Kate grew up calling Margot and Wallace's children "the taint." But then she meets – and becomes captivated by – their son, Denver.