An uncanny understanding of both city-council operations and the newspaper business some thirty years ago gave Leonard Sanders the ability to write this powerful novel about a small Texas city and the men who run it. Sanders has combined the struggle for power in a local city government and the human interest side of its effects on the people close to the inside in an appealing and revealing story centered around an ambitious water project designed to further the city's growth.
Different views about the future of the city arise from the personalities of those who must decide. Some council...