"It is the deep South, 1962, the year before Bull Connor turned his fire hoses on civil rights protesters in Birmingham and the Klan bombed the 16th Street Baptist Church. Two young men, one black and one white, are poised to face their destinies in a world erupting beneath their feet. For Richeboux Branscomb, the journey begins one sultry Alabama night on a dusty road in a rattle-trap Ford: a raw egg is hurled at a revered leader of the black community. For Acee Waites, it begins with a brother charged with killing a police officer and a ruthless sheriff's search for him and, eventually, for Acee himself. Propelled along separate tracks through 36 hours of racial turmoil, these estranged boyhood friends encounter tenderness and cruelty, erotic passion, and murderous rage. Then amid the spreading fires of racial violence, their paths converge in a moving, gripping climax" -- P. 4 of cover.