The teenage son of an Appalachian single mother who dies when he is eleven uses his good looks, wit, and instincts to survive foster care, child labor, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses. Set in the mountains of southern Appalachia, this is the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father's good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival....

Late one night, investigative journalist Jack Logan receives a surprise visit from U.S. Senator Malcolm Phillips at his New York apartment. Disheveled and in a panic, the senator swears that he's about to be murdered and pleads with Jack to protect his wife Taylor, who happens to be the only woman Jack has ever truly loved. Days later, Phillips is found dead in a hotel room in Micronesia, the apparent victim of an allergy attack. While the nation...

Weaves together the story of the disappearance of a prison guard's daughter on Alcatraz in 1937, and an Irish boy's efforts 20 years earlier to find his real father in America.