Title: Tomato Red
First published: 1998
Description: For Bev Merridew, who can turn a trick as easily as she can roll a joint, life in Venus Holler is tolerable. For her nineteen-year-old daughter, Jamalee, a life guaranteed to be the replica of her mother's isn't good enough. With her tomato-red hair and her barely contained rage, she has plans, and they don't include Venus Holler.

What they do include - indeed, depend on - is her drop-dead beautiful brother, Jason. But Jason may just be a country queer, and in the hills and hollows of the Ozarks, that is about the most dangerous thing a man could be. Into their midst comes Sammy Barlach. With too many entries on his rap sheet, he's passing through on his way to nowhere, looking to be a loser in new surroundings. Jamalee thinks he might be the muscle she and Jason need.
Subjects: Rural poor, Violence, Gay men, Fiction, Missouri, fiction, Fiction, mystery & detective, general, Fiction, lgbtq+, gay, Ozark mountains region, fiction, Social classes, Detective and mystery stories, Criminals, Fiction, general, Gay men, fiction, Criminals, fiction
Places: Ozark Mountains
LC classification: PS3573.O6263 T66 1998