The crying tree
(Book)

Irene and Nate Stanley are living a quiet and contented life with their two children, Bliss and Shep, on their family farm in southern Illinois when Nate suddenly announces he's been offered a job as a deputy sheriff in Oregon. Irene does not want to uproot her family and has deep misgivings. They are just settling into their life in Oregon's high desert when 15-year-old Shep is shot and killed during an apparent robbery in their home. The murderer is caught and sentenced to death. Irene copes by waiting, week by week, for Daniel Robbin's execution and the justice she feels she and her family deserve. Ultimately, faced with a growing sense that Robbin's death will not stop her pain, Irene takes the extraordinary and clandestine step of reaching out to her son's killer, and the two forge an unlikely connection.--From publisher description.