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Runner: A Novel
Not yet published
Expected 28 Jul 26In this gripping, emotionally-layered novel set in Prohibition-era Martha’s Vineyard, a young woman from a Black seafaring family plunges into the dangerous world of rum-running to save her home and uncover the truth about her father’s death.
Martha’s Vineyard, 1923. The sea is a gift that keeps on giving to Lena Jameson’s father, Earl, a fisherman turned successful rumrunner who’s built up a small fortune smuggling liquor from offshore ships to thirsty customers back on the island. But when Earl and his entire crew are lost in a mysterious shipwreck that some whisper was no accident, his loved ones are left reeling and penniless—and Lena, who’d been on the cusp of heading off to college in Boston, sees her future slipping away.
Desperate to save her family and her own hopes of escaping their small town, Lena decides to take over Earl’s rum-running business. For a crew, she ropes in Walter, her roguish big brother who leans too hard on the bottle, Sam, her steadfast local boyfriend who wants to keep her tethered to shore, and Dee, a glamorous young woman summering in the Vineyard from Boston, who offers Lena a glimpse of the future she still wants for herself—and who’s keeping an explosive secret.
The foursome takes off on a journey from the quaint, colorful streets of Oak Bluffs through gangland Boston and down to the jazz-filled clubs of Harlem in its early Renaissance, all in search of quick money—and the truth about the shipwreck. But as buried secrets rise to the surface and the temptations of the glittering underworld pull Lena in deeper, soon everything she’s fought to protect hangs in the her heart, her family, and her place in a world quick to condemn women who dare to want more.
Martha’s Vineyard, 1923. The sea is a gift that keeps on giving to Lena Jameson’s father, Earl, a fisherman turned successful rumrunner who’s built up a small fortune smuggling liquor from offshore ships to thirsty customers back on the island. But when Earl and his entire crew are lost in a mysterious shipwreck that some whisper was no accident, his loved ones are left reeling and penniless—and Lena, who’d been on the cusp of heading off to college in Boston, sees her future slipping away.
Desperate to save her family and her own hopes of escaping their small town, Lena decides to take over Earl’s rum-running business. For a crew, she ropes in Walter, her roguish big brother who leans too hard on the bottle, Sam, her steadfast local boyfriend who wants to keep her tethered to shore, and Dee, a glamorous young woman summering in the Vineyard from Boston, who offers Lena a glimpse of the future she still wants for herself—and who’s keeping an explosive secret.
The foursome takes off on a journey from the quaint, colorful streets of Oak Bluffs through gangland Boston and down to the jazz-filled clubs of Harlem in its early Renaissance, all in search of quick money—and the truth about the shipwreck. But as buried secrets rise to the surface and the temptations of the glittering underworld pull Lena in deeper, soon everything she’s fought to protect hangs in the her heart, her family, and her place in a world quick to condemn women who dare to want more.
384 pages, Hardcover
Expected publication July 28, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
📚 On Casey’s Bookshelf
Book: 46
Dates read: 03.06.2026 – 03.10.2026
Title: Runner
Author: Ashton Lattimore
Format: digital ARC
#caseysbookshelf
Let me start here. It does not normally take me this long to read a book. I was hella busy at the beginning of the month, so don’t let the timeline fool you. This was not the book… it was work.
Because once I was locked in, I was locked in.
There’s something really special about a historical novel that doesn’t just take you back in time, but makes you realize how much of that time you were never taught in the first place.
Runner pulls us into Martha’s Vineyard during Prohibition, but not the version most people think they know. This is a story rooted in Black life on the island. Community, survival, ambition, and the quiet ways people built lives for themselves in the middle of systems that weren’t built for them.
Lena is trying to hold everything together after her father’s death, making decisions that feel bigger than her age. Dee arrives carrying her own questions, and watching their lives begin to orbit each other adds a tension that kept me fully engaged.
And what I wasn’t expecting? A subtle suspense thread running through the story.
There are questions sitting just under the surface that you’re not quite sure will be answered, but they stay with you. And when the author decides to pull that thread? My mouth literally dropped. I did not see it coming. At all.
It’s written with a level of control that feels very intentional. Like someone who understands how to build tension without disrupting the emotional core of the story. The thriller girlie in me was very satisfied.
What also stood out is how the book engages with the Prohibition era. We all learned about it in school, but let’s be real… where were the Black people? We know we existed, but the stories of how we lived, worked, and navigated that time are rarely centered.
This book fills in some of those gaps and raises even more questions. Especially around Black life and the Black middle class during that period. I would love to sit down with Ashton and talk through her research because you can feel it on the page.
It reads with intention. Not rushed, not overly heavy, just immersive in a way that lets the world build around you.
If you love historical fiction that centers Black experiences, or you’ve been wanting to get into the genre, this is a strong place to start.
This one will be in stores July 28.
Thank you Ballantine Books for the #giftedcopy in exchange for an honest review.
Another book off the shelf. We keep reading with intention. 📚
Book: 46
Dates read: 03.06.2026 – 03.10.2026
Title: Runner
Author: Ashton Lattimore
Format: digital ARC
#caseysbookshelf
Let me start here. It does not normally take me this long to read a book. I was hella busy at the beginning of the month, so don’t let the timeline fool you. This was not the book… it was work.
Because once I was locked in, I was locked in.
There’s something really special about a historical novel that doesn’t just take you back in time, but makes you realize how much of that time you were never taught in the first place.
Runner pulls us into Martha’s Vineyard during Prohibition, but not the version most people think they know. This is a story rooted in Black life on the island. Community, survival, ambition, and the quiet ways people built lives for themselves in the middle of systems that weren’t built for them.
Lena is trying to hold everything together after her father’s death, making decisions that feel bigger than her age. Dee arrives carrying her own questions, and watching their lives begin to orbit each other adds a tension that kept me fully engaged.
And what I wasn’t expecting? A subtle suspense thread running through the story.
There are questions sitting just under the surface that you’re not quite sure will be answered, but they stay with you. And when the author decides to pull that thread? My mouth literally dropped. I did not see it coming. At all.
It’s written with a level of control that feels very intentional. Like someone who understands how to build tension without disrupting the emotional core of the story. The thriller girlie in me was very satisfied.
What also stood out is how the book engages with the Prohibition era. We all learned about it in school, but let’s be real… where were the Black people? We know we existed, but the stories of how we lived, worked, and navigated that time are rarely centered.
This book fills in some of those gaps and raises even more questions. Especially around Black life and the Black middle class during that period. I would love to sit down with Ashton and talk through her research because you can feel it on the page.
It reads with intention. Not rushed, not overly heavy, just immersive in a way that lets the world build around you.
If you love historical fiction that centers Black experiences, or you’ve been wanting to get into the genre, this is a strong place to start.
This one will be in stores July 28.
Thank you Ballantine Books for the #giftedcopy in exchange for an honest review.
Another book off the shelf. We keep reading with intention. 📚
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
This was a well-researched and engaging historical fiction about a woman (Lena) living in an African-American community in Martha's Vineyard during Prohibition who decides to take over her father's rum-running business after he dies. The descriptions of the community and of the rum-running business in Martha's Vineyard feel very realistic, and those are both interesting milieus. Lena's trajectory, however, feels far-fetched and the twists become a little eye-rolling towards the end. But it is a rollicking read. I would describe it as a historical fiction beach read. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC of the novel.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Imagine living on Martha's Vineyard, but you are black, there are few good jobs, and it is during Prohibition. Lena's father finds a way to provide for his family by running rum but once he dies how is Lena to provide?
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews