This is an "old" book (released in 2010), but it's still good. If you haven't read it, you should.
Kate is a young widow raising her eight-year-old son, Adam. He is hanging around a particularly bad influence on his young life, an older boy who bullies Adam into stealing from a man who builds boats, one J.J. O'Keefe--a man who had earned the money for his workshop in the boxing ring.
After living with a bully of a husband, Kate wasn't enthused over another man who used his fists. But this one seemed such a good influence over Adam. And he didn't seem like one who would hurt a woman or a small boy.