Beth Tally

Last Laugh Beth Tally

When Iris McGraw locks eyes with Tommy Moore in a hospital waiting room, she has no idea that this fateful encounter will change her life forever. Nor does she really know who he is or what he might be capable of. All that ultimately matters to her is how she feels about him and how he might be the much-desired means to escape from the confines of her life at McAlister Mill village.

Set in Greenville, South Carolina, during the summer of 1965, this story unfolds with the backdrop of an intensifying war in Vietnam. Having been summarily dismissed from The Citadel in Charleston for rebellious conduct, Tommy returns home to his family's estate, Laurelcrest, where he faces the predictable scorn of his father and newfound vulnerability to the US draft.

Tommy's pursuit of Iris, at first, is merely a dalliance. But with the cloud of the draft hanging over him, his intentions take a clandestine, self-centered twist. As he wakens hidden passions within her, he dangles the promises of wealth in front of her-temptations for which she may not have the strength to resist.