Lloyd White
Sprawling tale spanning 50 years in the life of the fictional Linthorne family as seen through the eyes of the rugged head of the clan as he and his wife weather the years of hardship on the prairie after settling on a parcel of untilled Midwestern farmland in 1866 in hopes of living a prosperous life together.
Unemployed and recently dumped, Mitch and his buddy Sam start a revenge-for-hire business to raise the $50,000 that Sam's father needs to get a heart transplant. The dirty duo brings down a movie theater manager and hires hookers to pose as dead bodies during a live TV ad. When a wealthy developer hires the guys to trash a building (so that he can have it condemned), problems arise and a feud ensues.
A somewhat daffy book editor on a rail trip from Los Angeles to Chicago thinks that he sees a murdered man thrown from the train. When he can find no one who will believe him, he starts doing some investigating of his own. But all that accomplishes is to get the killer after him.
