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In this dramatic, multi-layered novel set in Prohibition Era Martha's Vineyard, a young woman from a Black seafaring community becomes a rumrunner in a struggle to save her family and solve the mystery of her father's death.
Martha's Vineyard, 1923. Prohibition is a gift that keeps on giving to Lena Jameson's father Earl, a successful rumrunner who smuggles liquor from Canadian ships waiting a few miles off the Vineyard to American customers desperate for their booze. Earl has built up a small fortune for his family living in the Black coastal community of Oak Bluffs-until one day they learn that his vessel and entire crew have been drowned in a mysterious shipwreck.
Lena is stunned by the loss and fears it will interfere with her determination to attend college in Boston. Desperate to escape life on this small island, she's equally eager to postpone committing to her sweet but strait-laced boyfriend, Sam. But with Earl's rum-running income gone, Lena's family can't afford college or even to keep ahead of their bills. Meanwhile, gossipy neighbors and local police are whispering that the shipwreck was no accident.
Resolving to save her family and find out what happened to her father, Lena decides to take over Earl's rum-running business, enlisting her big brother Walter along with Sam and Dee Brooks, a savvy young woman from Boston who's summering in the Vineyard. Lena senses a kindred spirit in this new friend, unaware that Dee is keeping an explosive secret that threatens to upend their partnership.
Together, the foursome sets off on a journey that takes them from the colorful, quaint streets of Oak Bluffs through gangland Boston and on 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 dangers of the underworld threaten to corrupt Lena or snatch away her future, she's forced to reckon with how far she's willing to go to save her family and her own dreams. Ashton Lattimore is an award-winning journalist, author, and former lawyer. Until recently, she was the editor-in-chief of Prism, a nonprofit news outlet by and for communities of color, and has now stepped down to pursue her writing full time. Lattimore's journalism has appeared in the Washington Post, Slate, CNN, and Essence. She is a graduate of Harvard College, Harvard Law School, and Columbia Journalism School. Her first novel, All We Were Promised, won the First Novelist Award for the Black Caucus of the American Library Association. She grew up in New Jersey, and now lives in suburban Philadelphia with her husband and two sons. Author of All We Were Promised
Martha's Vineyard, 1923. Prohibition is a gift that keeps on giving to Lena Jameson's father Earl, a successful rumrunner who smuggles liquor from Canadian ships waiting a few miles off the Vineyard to American customers desperate for their booze. Earl has built up a small fortune for his family living in the Black coastal community of Oak Bluffs-until one day they learn that his vessel and entire crew have been drowned in a mysterious shipwreck.
Lena is stunned by the loss and fears it will interfere with her determination to attend college in Boston. Desperate to escape life on this small island, she's equally eager to postpone committing to her sweet but strait-laced boyfriend, Sam. But with Earl's rum-running income gone, Lena's family can't afford college or even to keep ahead of their bills. Meanwhile, gossipy neighbors and local police are whispering that the shipwreck was no accident.
Resolving to save her family and find out what happened to her father, Lena decides to take over Earl's rum-running business, enlisting her big brother Walter along with Sam and Dee Brooks, a savvy young woman from Boston who's summering in the Vineyard. Lena senses a kindred spirit in this new friend, unaware that Dee is keeping an explosive secret that threatens to upend their partnership.
Together, the foursome sets off on a journey that takes them from the colorful, quaint streets of Oak Bluffs through gangland Boston and on 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 dangers of the underworld threaten to corrupt Lena or snatch away her future, she's forced to reckon with how far she's willing to go to save her family and her own dreams. Ashton Lattimore is an award-winning journalist, author, and former lawyer. Until recently, she was the editor-in-chief of Prism, a nonprofit news outlet by and for communities of color, and has now stepped down to pursue her writing full time. Lattimore's journalism has appeared in the Washington Post, Slate, CNN, and Essence. She is a graduate of Harvard College, Harvard Law School, and Columbia Journalism School. Her first novel, All We Were Promised, won the First Novelist Award for the Black Caucus of the American Library Association. She grew up in New Jersey, and now lives in suburban Philadelphia with her husband and two sons. Author of All We Were Promised