"Still Is the Summer Night," Mr. Derleth's second novel, again has Sac Prairie for a background. This time, however, the emphasis is different [from that in "Place of Hawks"]. Though his story ends in violence, though his three young Halders act out a stormy triangular drama, his characters this time are normal and subject to normal passions. They take an active, vigorous part in the life of Sac Prairie—a town which, in the early Eighties, still retained lingering features of a typical frontier settlement. (pp. 7, 18)
On the outskirts of the village, crouching at the edge of the prairie, lay the prosperous Halder farm. Here, in apparent amity, dwelt old Captain Halder, a Civil War veteran; his sons, Ratio and Alton, and Ratio's beautiful young wife, Julie. As the book opens, however, the seeds of disunion and disaster have already been sowed. Handsome, arrogant, fretted by domesticity, Ratio has turned from Julie and is carrying on a sordid intrigue with a village girl. Julie guesses what is happening, and though her first pain has been somewhat stilled, she is angry, wounded, and eager for certitude. Alton, who loves her deeply but silently, is a helpless spectator in this early stage of the drama….
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