In this middle book of the epic DIXIANA trilogy, Southern-fried prodigal son Roy Earl Pettus adjusts to life back home in tumultuous Edgewater County: break-ins at his granddaddy's honkytonk The Dixiana, police shootings, a caning, and worst of all, more grief over a marriage the redneck renaissance man can't quite put back in good order. Add in political tension coupled with threats from local gangsters over his brash disposition of the Confederate flag mural problem, and his re-entry into local society proceeds on a bumpy path.
Wait until they find out what all Roy has planned for the town, now that the smartest guy in the room--with the biggest checkbook--has arrived. Then folks will really get their knickers in a snit, particularly in case the activist preacher gets his referendum passed about changing the name of the town.
Add in eldercare problems, the drool from a giant white dog, and the disposition of a honkytonk he alternates between hating and loathing, and beleaguered Roy will find solace only in metaphysical mentoring by his cousin Button Sykes--will she discourage his megalomania in favor of a meditation routine? To build instead of destroy? When a confrontation with increasingly unhinged Christy Beaudock, coupled with shoot-out between cops and a nutcase, threatens to change their lives forever on an otherwise ordinary day on the town green, the twin protagonists will find themselves with more immediate problems DOWN IN DIXIANA than those of managing ego or what to do with an old honkytonk: they'll fear for their lives.
