Jim Bodine, abandoned by his mother and raised by a strict uncle, flees his small Idaho town at 18, accused of murdering the young man engaged to Laura Ingersoll, the girl he loved. After years of adventure, drudgery and wandering, he returns in 1955, age 41, seeking home and renewed purpose, and to resolve his lingering obsession with Laura. Jim buys a farm from Bert Henderson, who becomes his mentor and he reconnects with old friends, still shadowed by suspicion.

Allowing himself to be drawn into a friendship with Laura’s daughter, Julia, he becomes convinced he is her father but fears the consequences of telling her so. An alluring widow, Donna Riley, brings unexpected hope of enduring love, but dangerous misunderstandings lurk behind their compatibility. Daryl Holman, Laura’s community-leading husband, vows to crush Jim as a romantic rival and as an interloper with his adopted daughter. The police chief is pressured to help prosecute Jim for the old alleged murder but has family reasons to suppress long-held evidence. A longtime rival skillfully manipulates events to harm Jim, and the local café proprietress offers motherly advice. Jim races to produce a successful harvest against determined opposition, and Idaho’s changing agricultural economy and politics.

To achieve the life he desires, Jim must unravel the mysteries, deceptions and betrayals of the past, and overcome his own mistakes and misjudgments. The cost will be high.

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Author Drew Avery lives in Omaha, Nebraska, where he owns a business. He and his wife Patty met and lived many years in Seattle, inspiring the 1950s description of that city. In Drew's extensive travels among the land forms and small towns of North Idaho, he found inspiration for a story that became Father by Blood.