The Mongol Reply — Benjamin M. Schutz

Serena Tully's troubled marriage has gone over the dam. Her husband, Tom, is a volatile pro-football coach and former player with a hair-trigger temper (he was responsible for a death on the field and has no regrets). Tom's attorney, Albert Garfield, brings the same take-no-prisoners attitude to divorce proceedings. When the papers are served on an unprepared Serena, she finds herself without access to any assets, her home, or her children. The judge appoints Dr. Morgan Reece to assess the long-term parenting options, and Reece counsels Serena to replace her overmatched attorney with semiretired Lou Carlson, who quickly surmises that Tom has another source of income besides coaching but has no clue to what lengths the slash-and-burn Garfield will go to protect his client. Meanwhile, Reece finds himself questioning his life, his work, and his future, all in doubt after the death of his daughter and his own subsequent divorce