Copperhead Road

by Brad Smith

Summer 1936, Wilkes County, North Carolina during the great depression. The Flagg family resides in the middle of the Appalachia – one of the hardest hit areas in the country. As the depression drags on the Flagg family watch their molasses business decimated. Jedediah, the family patriarch and his sons Morgan and Ezra struggle to produce a few meager gallons a week. That is until their sister Ava arrives home and takes control of the family business and starts running moonshine. Ava bails out ex-con Bobby Barlow and tells him he is working for the Flagg family now. With threats mounting from rival clans and the local cops breathing down Bobby's neck, he and Ava devise a plan to play them all, one against the other. They don't necessarily do it by legal means but that doesn't bother them. To live outside the law, you must be honest.

237 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 1, 2002

About the author

Brad Smith was born and raised in southern Ontario. He has worked as a farmer, signalman, insulator, truck driver, bartender, schoolteacher, maintenance mechanic, roofer, and carpenter. He lives in a eighty-year-old farmhouse near the north shore of Lake Erie. His novel, "One-Eyed Jacks" was nominated for the Dashiell Hammett Prize.

Some of his books that have been published include One-Eyed Jacks (2000), All Hat (2003), Busted Flush (2005), Big Man Coming Down The Road (2007), Red Means Run (January 2012) and Crow's Landing (August 2012).

Follow Brad on Facebook at http://on.fb.me/uQYcIw.

Reviews

[Christina · Rating 5 out of 5]

A superbly written novel about moonshiners in the South in the 1930s. Brilliant characterisation through deft dialogue and a marvellous portrait of time and place. The novel was a little slow to begin but the pieces began falling into place soonish. Brad Smith is a helluva writer.

[Tan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thrilling tale of making moonshine during the Depression.

[Janet Trull · Rating 5 out of 5]

Copperhead Road by Brad Smith is a story of hard times in the Great Depression years. Yes. Harder times than now. Fast paced intrigue and quirky characters. ❤️

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Love Smith's writing but this was not his best work.