Library JournalDuke Johnston, patriarch of a Charlotte, NC, society family (publicly wealthy but privately floundering), presides over Civil War reenactments and an extensive firearms collection with a historian's eye and over his raucous family with bewilderment. Thrice-married daughter Annie garrulously barrels her way through the often politically incorrect world of Southern society, while the more compliant Jerilyn navigates sorority life at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Son Bo has chosen the ministry even as his brother, Joshua, trolls online for quick hook-ups but hopes for lasting love. Wife Jerene Jarvis Johnston polices family scandals and exemplifies a slowly fading lifestyle of compromise and gnawing painful secrets.
