With all the scandalous headlines of prominent public figures caught in extramarital affairs, and hip-hoppers with two baby mamas delivering children just months apart, Angela Benson's latest novel about a high-powered business executive who has not one but two families, does not seem that far-fetched.

'Sins of the Father,' is the story of Abraham Martin, who seems to have the world at his feet: great wealth, a strong and elegant wife, Saralyn and a son, Isaac. But he harbors a deep secret: a beautiful and powerful mistress, Leah, a daughter, Deborah, and son, Michael, who is hell bent on revenge because he believes his father abandoned them.

Now, 30 years later in an effort to assuage his conscience, Abraham is ready to bring his illegitimate family into the fold. The move threatens the succession rights to the family's multi-million dollar media empire, MEEG, and Saralyn is ready to fight. Isaac should be the sole heir to the family fortune.

"You're not going to brush me off so easily,'' she says to Abraham in chapter 50. "You can't keep making all these unilateral decisions. You should have consulted me before you offered Deborah a job, before you put her and that mother of hers on the board, and definitely before you did anything for that miscreant Michael.''

Alternately, Michael targets Isaac, the apple of his father's eye, as a way to get back at his father for abandoning them, while his sister Deborah seeks to mend fences. But a stunning turn of events forces the family to come together and to come to terms with one another. 'Sins of the Father' is an entertaining read.

Benson is a graduate of Spelman College and author of 12 novels, including 'Awakening Mercy,' and the Essence bestseller "The Amen Sisters, and 'Up Pops the Devil.' She is currently an associate professor at the University of Alabama and lives in Northport, Al.