A young man determined to avenge his mother's sexual assault by a powerful politician. The scions of two wealthy thoroughbred racing families, each trying to make his own mark in the world. A German family driven - and torn apart - by deeply held secrets. Bloodlines explores how our pasts and pedigrees can have unexpected impacts on our futures and progeny. Using as backdrop thoroughbred racing, breeding and betting parlors; bourbon distilleries; the arcane business of powder metal manufacturing, and the world's "beautiful game" of soccer, author Rob Hilliard takes readers from post-World War II Germany to 1980s Kentucky and Virginia ... from the U.S., Canada and the U.K. to Ireland, the European Continent and Israel ... from the early years of the Civil Rights movement to the fall of the Berlin Wall. How these disparate worlds, locations and individuals become entwined over decades drives this sweeping story of corporate intrigue, international drama and, most of all, the family ties that bind them.