"Washed in the Blood" is a page-turning read about the the rowdy oil boom days of the early 1960s in Odessa, Texas, when violence often rode the range. It is at once an examination of local mores and foibles, piety and hypocrisy, and an inside-look at the famed Kiss and Kill murder of a 17-year old would-be actress, Betty Jean Williams.

This unique three-part novel assumes that, regardless of what Americans learn in school, the Southeast was not a barren wilderness when the English arrived at Jamestown. It was full of Native Americans and of other Europeans who were there for various reasons. Based on extensive research into the racial mixing that occurred in the early years of southeastern settlement, this provocative multi-generation story shows that people did not simply vanish, but that many were absorbed into the new communities that gradually formed throughout the southeast, becoming ¿white¿ whenever their complexions allowed. The inability to accept their true heritages illustrates the high price many of these people paid for their way of life. Diego Martin arrives in 1567 in the American Southeast¿the region the Spaniards call La Florida¿as a hog drover with a Spanish exploring party. The leader of the expedition turns against him and abandons him to the wilderness, where friendly natives rescue him. Daniel Hunter, a Quaker from Philadelphia, sets up a school among these ¿disadvantaged¿ mountain people and falls in love with a Martin daughter. Later, Daniel¿s descendants are living in the same town, though with little awareness of their ancestral past. The Martin family has split in two, the merchants in town denying any relationship to their racially mixed cousins on Mulatto Bald. A young woman from town, Galicia, falls in love with a young man from the bald, Will, not realizing that he is her cousin. They marry, have a daughter, and move to a new industrial center, becoming prominent citizens. When Will¿s son from a teenage liaison appears at his door, he invites him in, unwittingly setting the stage for a forbidden love between his unacknowledged son and his cherished daughter, neither of whom realizes that they are half-siblings. This is a novel you will not be able to put down without thinking and wondering ¿where will it take me next.¿

An Out-of-Control Rock Star. An Inescapable Addiction to Drugs. A Miraculous Redemption through Jesus Christ. You think you've heard this story before but you haven't. Washed by Blood is a look at the dramatic saving power of Jesus Christ unlike any other—one that shows how God looks out for all of us, even those who seem farthest away from his grace. Brian "Head" Welch was a rock star who thought he had it all. He was the lead guitarist in Korn, one of the biggest and most controversial rock bands on the planet. He lived in a mansion, had millions of dollars in the bank, and legions of fans all over the globe. He was living the good life, and it should have been perfect. But it was all a lie. What no one knew was that backstage and away from the crowds, Head was fighting a debilitating addiction to methamphetamines, and that nothing—not even the birth of his daughter—could make him quit for good. He had given up. He was empty inside. He spent his days contemplating suicide convinced that each high would be his last. And that was when he found God. Washed by Blood tells the remarkable story of how God's unconditional love freed Head from his addictions and saved him from death. Here Head describes the joys and struggles of his journey to faith, detailing how Jesus has helped him cope with his pain and find the path that's right for both him and his daughter. An account of triumphs, hardships, and the healing power of Jesus, Washed by Blood is an inspirational demonstration that God is always there to save even the most troubled souls.

Blinded by anger, the man who had sworn to protect me, shot me in a fit of rage when I was only sixteen years old. He thought he killed me. But my job wasn't finished yet. My days are spent as President of the Heavens Guardians MC. Nights are spent searching for the scum of the earth. Rapists, Murderers, Pedophiles. They all answer to me. I thought I'd seen it all. Thought my heart couldn't be any darker. Thought I knew exactly how far I was willing to go. Then a battered and broken woman was found behind our clubhouse, and I realized, I've never had a clue about the monster that lurks within. They may call me Priest, but I'd sell my soul to the devil before I let anything take her away from me.

Will Smith in I Am Legend. Leonardo DiCaprio in Titanic. Charlton Heston in just about everything. Viewers of Hollywood action films are no doubt familiar with the sacrificial victim-hero, the male protagonist who nobly gives up his life so that others may be saved. Washed in Blood argues that such sacrificial films are especially prominent in eras when the nation—and American manhood—is thought to be in crisis. The sacrificial victim-hero, continually imperiled and frequently exhibiting classic symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, thus bears the trauma of the nation. Claire Sisco King offers an in-depth study of three prominent cycles of Hollywood films that follow the sacrificial narrative: the early–to–mid 1970s, the mid–to–late 1990s, and the mid–to–late 2000s. From Vietnam-era disaster movies to post-9/11 apocalyptic thrillers, she examines how each film represents traumatized American masculinity and national identity. What she uncovers is a cinematic tendency to position straight white men as America’s most valuable citizens—and its noblest victims.

Russia Washed in Blood, first published in full in 1932, is the longest and best-known work by Nikolai Kochkurov (1899–1938), who wrote under the pen-name Artyom Vesyoly. The novel, more a series of extended episodes than a connected narrative with a plot and a hero, is a vivid fictionalised account of the events from the viewpoint of the ordinary soldier. The title of the novel came to symbolise the tragic history of Russia in the 20th century. Born in Samara, on the banks of the Volga, the son of a waterside worker, Artyom Vesyoly was the first member of his family to learn to read and write. He took part in the Civil War of 1918–1921 on the Red side, and at its conclusion began a prolific literary career. Vesyoly took as his main theme the horrific events he had witnessed and participated in during the fierce fighting in Southern Russia between the contending forces – Red, White, Cossack, anarchist and others – and the effects of these on the participants and unfortunate civilians caught between them.