Seventeen-year-old Joel ran down the road with murder in his heart. This was it. His stepfather had gone too far. He would ambush the violent man before he got any closer to his farm — or to his mother.

The Watsons of Tethertown follows the life of Joel Watson and his family in a small Missouri town from 1886 to 1919. Fun, sensual, and historically accurate, this novel is a window into the texture of everyday life more than 120 years ago. Joel’s adult life begins on the night he flees his family farm and finds refuge with a neighbor who saves him from almost certain hanging. He meets and woos the love of his life Belle and eventually finds his way back to the family farm. Joel and Belle find passion, joy, and sorrow, surviving drought, catastrophic winter weather, and several devastating family tragedies.

Joel’s sister-in-law Beatrice moves in with the family after one such tragedy and eventually falls in love – but with a woman. Years later, Joel’s daughters marry and when the Great War begins, their husbands ship out to fight for the United States. As the girls wait for news, the Spanish flu strikes.

Will the Watson girls’ husbands return home, and will the family all survive the Spanish flu? And what can Beatrice hope for?

Take a trip back in time and discover that no matter how much things change, people remain the same.

Family is everything.