"Lady Luck, smile on me." We often invoke the good will of Luck, of Chance, hoping for the "big break", so as to change our lives for the better. A young girl, Patti, is jogging through the Mississippi woods in the small town of Beware as she normally does when, reaching a fork in the path, she chooses to veer left instead of going right as she usually does. In doing so, as luck would have it, she is abruptly running to her death. She is violently murdered. A black jazz singer named Moondog Baker is considered a possible suspect for no other reason than he was seen exiting those same woods that day. Many in town believe he is guilty and would like to take the law into their own hands. This well crafted mystery is set in the 1960's, the time of the arising "Black movement" in the United States and the (possible) murder of a young white girl by a black man can generate additional unfortunate events. Add to the volatile mix the arrival in town of James Pierce, a white man who once lived in the town and who, upon his return, resumes his former love affair with Ophelia, a beautiful black woman, and there is additional anger on both sides of the social divide. There is additional violence as well.