Ruby River

"Lynn Pruett's novel drops us into a small town during a blistering Alabama summer where Hattie Bohannon has just opened a truck stop. A magnet for transients of questionable background and inclination, and run by Hattie's nubile daughters, the truck stop is an uneasy presence in tradition-bound, gossipy Maridoches.". "Hattie is quietly mourning her recently dead husband and trying to determine the contours of her self alone, but too often her strong-willed daughters - whose burgeoning sexuality is attracting attention from the truck-stop patrons - keep her at loose ends. In a season of…