Paving Paradise, by J. Harris Anderson
The forces of conservation and development clash amidst family strife in Virginia's Crutchfield County where foxhunting traditions rule the pace and rhythms of country life. Myrna Billington is in a life-or-death predicament. In debt to a shady loan shark and pursued by a persistent enforcer, she flees to rural Virginia in hopes of selling her share of the family's estate. The prospective buyer plans to build a major resort facility that will forever change the area's rural nature. Her brother, Thumper Billington, is master of the local hunt club and proprietor of the historic property. Convincing him to let her sell her part of Montfair will require subterfuge, duplicity, and ultimately the threat of personal ruin for him and those he cares about.

Paperback, 274 pages