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Moonshiners: A Novel
Not yet published
Expected 8 Jun 27A lady bootlegger and a Temperance Saint in Prohibition Kentucky become unlikely partners in the fight against the men keeping them down in this rollicking novel from the bestselling author of A Most Agreeable Murder.
Aster County Kentucky, 1926: Schoolteacher Nelle Hawkins is a fervent member of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union. Passionate and exacting, she wants to convert every drinker into a teetotaler…and move on from the wreckage alcohol wrought on her past. She’s ready to take out local speakeasies one by one. But Nelle’s plans are constantly spurned by her community, which believes a woman’s purpose is to gently guide and inspire, leaving action to the men.
Bootlegger Jessamine Ray wants in on the other side of the action. She is sick of delivering white lightning for men who don’t take her seriously. But when a daring plan goes awry, Jessamine finds herself arrested and sentenced to the worst thing imaginable for an audacious thrill-seeker… a year of women’s temperance meetings.
Nelle sees this as her chance to reform Jessamine and prove that women can make a difference. Jessamine sees this as her chance to step out on her own and access an untapped clientele by supplying them with the treasure everyone craves in a dry sweet corn liquor.
What begins as a clash between two very different women slowly transforms into an unexpected understanding…and partnership. But as Nelle and Jessamine begin to work together to achieve their goals, they face the law, rival moonshiners, and monotonous meetings.
By the end of a scorching summer, it will all end in murder. The question whose?
Aster County Kentucky, 1926: Schoolteacher Nelle Hawkins is a fervent member of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union. Passionate and exacting, she wants to convert every drinker into a teetotaler…and move on from the wreckage alcohol wrought on her past. She’s ready to take out local speakeasies one by one. But Nelle’s plans are constantly spurned by her community, which believes a woman’s purpose is to gently guide and inspire, leaving action to the men.
Bootlegger Jessamine Ray wants in on the other side of the action. She is sick of delivering white lightning for men who don’t take her seriously. But when a daring plan goes awry, Jessamine finds herself arrested and sentenced to the worst thing imaginable for an audacious thrill-seeker… a year of women’s temperance meetings.
Nelle sees this as her chance to reform Jessamine and prove that women can make a difference. Jessamine sees this as her chance to step out on her own and access an untapped clientele by supplying them with the treasure everyone craves in a dry sweet corn liquor.
What begins as a clash between two very different women slowly transforms into an unexpected understanding…and partnership. But as Nelle and Jessamine begin to work together to achieve their goals, they face the law, rival moonshiners, and monotonous meetings.
By the end of a scorching summer, it will all end in murder. The question whose?
288 pages, Hardcover
Expected publication June 8, 2027
About the author
Julia Seales
4 books1,385 followersJulia Seales is the author of A MOST AGREEABLE MURDER and its sequel, A TERRIBLY NASTY BUSINESS. She earned an MFA in screenwriting from UCLA, and a BA in English from Vanderbilt University. She is a lifelong Anglophile with a passion for both murder mysteries and Jane Austen. Julia is originally from Kentucky, where she learned about manners (and bourbon).
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