The Furies — Niven Busch

New Mexico cattle baron, Temple Caddy Jefford, hog-rich and gut-mean, doesn't think that either of his two sons has what it takes to manage the spread after he's gone. In lieu of a son's partnership, he offers the job to his flinty, shrewd, and passionate daughter, Vance who accepts the challenge and excels. As the bond between father and daughter grows, she becomes the beloved patriarch's indispensable assistant and astutely masters all she can about her father's business tactics―perhaps a bit too well.

The father-daughter liaison continues to flourish until T.C. derails Vance's plans to marry and subsequently brings home Mrs. Burnett, a mistress with whom he's had a long relationship, and announces his plans to wed. Infuriated by her father's double standard, displaced and maddened by jealousy and betrayal, Vance attacks Mrs. Burnett with a scissors while she sleeps and flees the ranch. Thus father and daughter, once filled with mutual love and admiration, begin a downward spiral―a vicious course of hostility and revenge, ruin and murder.

The Furies is a thundering saga of the American west of the late 19th century filled with complex and twisted characters and vibrant scenes of the rugged New Mexico landscape. It was also turned into a film of the same name starring Barbara Stanwyck.