by George McNeill
1975 Bantam
The story of the messed up Deevers family of plantation owners. Levon is the decadent prodigal son who sins deeper into degradation as he plots to take over the farm. His brother Athel owns the property, and the story splits time between Levon and Athel's kids, Joleen, Lawton, and Tillman.
After a spicy first act, things settle down in the middle. Everybody gets married, Levon works on building his financial empire, Joleen marries a Jewish abolitionist. Bit of a drag after starting off with teen incest and mass murder.
Levon steps up his evil plans like a straight up melodrama villain, dreaming about raping Joleen and forcing her into prostitution. I kept waiting for him to tie her to a railroad track. Most of the plot involves getting letters of credit.
Things stay a little sleazy, with insane chronic masturbator Tillman upping the ante, but the ending wasn't as crazy as it could have been, especially since it depended on the explosive nature of parrafin for two separate dei ex machina.
Weirdly, the novel was shy on the race mixing aspects of the genre. No Mandingo type characters, no sexualized Black men at all, and only a quick sex scene at a brothel with a Black woman. While unsympathetic to slavery, the Black characters had a distinct NPC feel to them.
Ebook available for Kindle and audiobook from Audible at Amazon
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