Phil Hunt is deep in trouble. For twenty years he's lived in Washington State, raising horses with his wife on his small farm and trying to stay clear of the law. But when a less-than-legal side job goes horribly wrong, Hunt is suddenly on the run from two men: Drake, the deputy sheriff who intends to incarcerate him, and Grady, the vicious hitman with a knife fetish who means to carve him limb from limb.
An explosive chase ensues, and Hunt is forced to use all his willpower and toughness to rescue his quiet life and save his skin. Headlong and gorgeously written, with memorable characters and a vividly powerful sense of place, The Terror of Living marks the arrival of a new master of narrative suspense.

A searing drought has come to Round Prairie, and with it, a young runaway from Georgia in search of his long-lost father. At Four Cedars, Lycurgus and Rachael Sherwood welcome their first-born child, Charles Douglas Sherwood. Surge is called upon to help the two runaways reunite, and to rescue them from the grasp of river pirates. The climactic reunion of these two tormented souls unfolds with all the explosive force of a hurricane.