As millions of people set out to discover their roots, Keith Mason's family-discovery story is the oddest of all.

Please Stand Up is a one-of-a-kind (and completely true) excursion through offbeat chapters of the American parade. This first book by a major player in the ranks of America's greatest storytellers uncovers:

* A sociopathic father's seven marriages
* An unknown grandfather - a crusading reporter - killed by a corrupt sheriff in a dusty Texas town in 1949
* Eight new brothers and sisters who might welcome the newcomer or turn him away
* Emotions colliding with each revelation, as the author's lifelong defensive wall collapses and he finally has to take a chance on how he'll be received

Mason grew up an only child raised by a single mother and nurse. It wasn't until age sixty-four that he stumbled into this extraordinary journey filled with scandal, crime, abandoned children and violent tragedy that surrounded a sociopathic man whose own parents were ripped away.

Rich with historic detail, sardonic humor and remarkable research, Please Stand Up delves into the unusual lives of a deep-sea salvage diver, an old-school reporter and an Ohio homicide detective. The page-turning narrative connects his grandfather's murder to an infamous voting scandal that threatened the career of the future president Lyndon Johnson.

It's a walk through four generations of an American family who often didn't know each other, either by choice or tragic chance.

This is one story that will be appreciated by anyone who's found, or suspected, there was someone out there... that belonged to them. It's a rollicking history, a funny review of the 1950s and '60s, a time-traveling adventure and a grand statement about family connections.