Karen Barnett's Debut Novel Takes Readers Into Historical Prohibition Period...Check it Out!

bassriverhistory.blogspot.com
"Port Angeles, Washington, 1926
"Carefully, she guided the Ford in beside the other automobile. Empty. She hadn't expected to spot lovers necking
in the front seat, but only fools would be out on a storm-swept beach in the dark of night.
"Laurie twisted a long strange of beads as her stomach churned. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes.
Please God, don't let my brother be one of those fools...
"The plan seemed sound earlier, but now her knees trembled. The tree branches above her head thrashed like
a thousand arms waving her away. Laurie steeled herself. If her brother was on that beach, she wanted to know...
"Laurie wrinkled her nose at the muck and pushed herself up to her knees. The flashlight created a comforting
bubble of light around her.
"It also helped her see the unexpected hand as it clamped unto her arm.
"Laurie shrieked. Swinging the flashlight, she brought it down on the strange wrist with a loud crack...
"My name is Daniel Shepherd. And I--well, as ridiculous as it sounds on a night like tonight--I was delivering
something. I thought I saw lights out on the beach, so I stopped..."
~~~

Mistaken:
First Impressions Are Never
What They Seem

By Karen Barnett

I grew up in a small "dry" town that was founded by Albert Gallatin--New Geneva, PA--and, indeed, it is still dry... Having the entire country go dry during Prohibition was, of course, due to women...LOL But even many of the women didn't support it... My guess is that many wives of the men in Congress at that time were quietly or loudly pushing their husbands to vote as they wished...But everybody soon realized that this just wasn't working!

We know now that alcoholism is a disease for some, so special provisions had to be made for those individuals to get their "medicine..." Laurie Burke's father was one of those individuals. Now she was concerned that her brother was a rumrunner! Laurie continuously prayed for her father, but now, her worries had

doubled. Indeed, Johnny her brother had gotten involved in running rum from Canada. He wasn't drinking it, but could still get into trouble running it!

And Laurie was going to stop him! Or at least try...

What she did was cause a lot of extra trouble--she was Mistaken about several things...

But nobody was talking to her, so she put 2 plus 2 together and got...5...

Laurie had met Daniel Shepherd the night she had gone looking for Johnny. He had seen the same lights as she had on the water and stopped to investigate. He had been delivering a prescription... Laurie assumed he was a rumrunner...

But she was still just as attracted to him as he was to her...

So when she went to the pharmacy with her friend Amelia, who was also Johnny's girlfriend, she hated that she had to pick up her father's "prescription" from Dr. Pierce, because to her way of thinking, that doctor dosed himself and his patients with a generous serving of brandy!

And then she got the real surprise! Daniel was a pharmacist!

"Sinking into her chair at the end of the long row of switchboards, Laurie settled the headset over her ears. She took a moment to press cool fingers against her temples, hoping to push the pain aside. Every time she closed her eyes, she pictured Johnny down at the beach, a load of whiskey at this feet, or her father when she arrived home--passed out on the sofa, an empty bottle clutched to his chest...
                                            ~~~
"She must be mistaken. That man couldn't have been preparing to ask her out on a date. She shivered. As if she would go anywhere with a rotten rumrunner, even if his dimpled smile made her knees melt. There had to be someone out there who was decent, trustworthy, and not
connected with booze in any way. Of course, it wouldn't hurt
if that someone looked like Daniel Shepherd...



"Mr. Larson leaned forward. "Ladies, I don't know if you would remember my grandson..."
"Laurie stared at the mirror, a flush creeping up her neck. The man's smile was unmistakable--even in the daylight..."

"I think Miss Burke and I have already met."

"Miss Burke's eyes widened, the blush on her cheecks darkening. "No, I don't believe we have, Mr. Shepherd..."

There was much to keep Daniel and Laurie apart. For one, he was a sober alcoholic, but didn't think she would accept even that... While Laurie wanted to above all trust somebody who she could then love, since she couldn't trust her father and brother...and already didn't trust Mr. Burke!

So she was willing to meet the new revenuer who'd come to town, even though she was afraid for Johnny...

They had already started gathering information and had made a raid on a local establishment where Johnny had just been delivering and was almost caught!

He ran to Daniel's place above the pharmacy and had spent time there, sharing more than they both wanted to...

Laurie was caught...

The revenuer wanted her to provide information on the town people... And they would often meet at the
pharmacy where guess who served them, fuming..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Soda_fountain

.


While Johnny's boss wanted her to tell them what plans the revenuer was making!

What a fun book on mistaken communications! Laurie is a strong character who bravely treads anywhere to save her brother... The revenuer is interested in her for more than...information...and she might just have to agree to his demands...

Historical romantic fiction during one of the strangest times that the federal government got involved with controlling people's lives--and the people weren't willing...LOL I think you'll enjoy visiting those early times before most of us were born... Although, like I said, my little town had voted to be "dry" and stayed that way...  Highly recommended if this sounds like a place you want to visit--at least in this wonderful first novel for Karen Barnett...


GABixlerReviews

God is the same yesterday, today, and forever--and yet our human story changes daily. As a writer of historical romance, I love to explore my characters' faith and how their experiences impact the way they view God.

There's nothing I enjoy more than a beautiful love story and God's devotion to His people is the best one of all. It even ends with the hero riding in on a white horse! (Revelation 19:11). 

My first novel,MISTAKEN, releases in July 2013 with Abingdon Press. I am published in several nation magazines, including "Birthday Wish" which appeared inGuideposts Magazine in February 2010. I am represented by Rachel Kent of Books & Such Literary Agency. 

I live in the beautiful Pacific Northwest with my husband, two children, three furry felines and the newest addition--a dachshund puppy. 

Ray Chen Smith Presents Extraordinary Thriller on Underground Railroad!

Harriet Tubman, an African American abolitionist and conductor
 of  the Underground Railroad. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

"Della crouched behind the shrubs, held on to
Cece, and prayed they hadn't been noticed.
Through the scant leaf cover, she could no longer
see the mounted patrolman who'd appeared a
block away. Just the same view of the lifeless 
Richmond neighborhood with its red brick homes,
every window black at four in the morning.
"The nearby James River rapids roared and the
singsong of the night insects further muffled the
cop's movements--just as they had earlier muted
the women's escape from the plantation...
"She felt Cece recoil beside her, and she knew the
younger woman had also spotted the emblem.
This was no ordinary policeman but a deputy
of the Fugitive Slave Agency..."
~~~

The Jazz Cage

By Ray Chen Smith


If there is another book out there that has taken the history of "The Underground Railroad" and made it into one of the most exciting thrillers I've read, I'll be very surprised. We all learned and studied about the Railroad, but not until Smith's book had I thought about the depth of the danger involved...

Or the lack of real change after the Civil War had ended...

The Jazz Cage takes place in 1924, 60 years after the War...But that did not mean that the slaves had been
freed. Especially for those that had been owned by rich white men!

Wills was a millionaire, mostly made from bootlegging, as the Prohibition was still in effect. And he is the true villain in this book, although there are many! Wills was known as monster to the female slaves. Cece had been traumatized when he took her when she was just 10. Now at 20, she would still escape into that place that women go when being abused in ways no child could ever understand.

Della was also there, but she was a stronger woman and had only hate to keep her that way. Cece was not able to be on her own. They called her changes before "It" and after "It" and when something threw her back into her real life, her eyes would glaze over and Della knew she was not there at that time...But she kept Cece with her and when she had a chance, she and Cece left with the representative of the Underground Railroad....

"The two men were heading back to the neighborhoods
around Byrd Park, the twenty-acre green kidney that
Frank suspected the girls had hidden in the night of
their escape. But the morning interviews had given no
support to that theory since nobody saw anything.
"Maybe they didn't go past the park," Isaac said midway
down an alley...
"Isaac, unless the girls sprouted wings, this place is the
only way they could've gotten out. You can't expect
people to be looking out their windows in the early
morn--"
"You two Yankees the ones who's been asking
stupid questions..."
~~~

But as soon as it was discovered, Wills sent two of his men to find them and bring them back!

Frank McCluey is certainly an unlikely hero, yet that's what he became. He was a bounty hunter working for the mob and Wills had sent him on the hunt...

Whether Frank had already started to change when he'd lost his lover who was "considered a red commie," or whether he just could not stand to send the two women back into Wills' house, or perhaps it was because Della hated him so much and he started to feel guilty... Why is unimportant, because Frank chose to help the two escape!

Frank also had a young man with him--Isaac was the heir apparent of the mob boss, and Frank had been asked to keep him safe. So when he had decided to help the women, he tried to send Isaac back home. But Isaac had become close to Frank and respected him. He chose to stay and help...

So here's what we have readers, we have the abolitionists and those that oppose their activities. We have the mob and their concerns about running booze. We have the local law officers in any given place, and we have those who work directly for the rich men who are sent out to "assist..."

And then we have the Hound...A Confederate agent who discovered early in his life that anybody who crossed him, could be...eliminated...

Readers will enjoy the chase as one group versus another get into the action. But no matter what, Frank chose to stay with Della and Cece. The first mix-up resulted in the guide for Della and Cece being killed...along with the group that had been chasing. But Della had taken careful notes and they soon started toward the next hiding location. When they finally got there, everything was dusty and looked like it hadn't been used for a very long time--but at least there was canned food!

The relationship between Della and Frank went between fear and anger, with no trust from Della and Frank afraid of being near Cece because she now considered every white man a monster...

Believe it! There was no way that I had earlier been "involved" with the run experienced by those slaves who were even lucky enough to make contact with the abolitionists. This book takes you into that hunt. I called it an exciting thriller at the beginning, which it probably is for a specific genre...but, believe me, you soon have no ability to be anything but sympathetic and holding your breath as each time Frank or Della succeed in making it through another chase or trap...

And the action never stops. You will possibly cry, as I did, at the end when it looks like there are just too many in the chase against the three...You will experience the panic, the feeling of defeat...

And the amazing ending...

If you, too, never "felt" the feelings of those escaping slavery, please make this a must-read, like I consider it. BRH has missed Black History Month by a few days...but this book is highly recommended as a literary statement that we should all experience during this time of looking back in "our own history"...

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Brooklyn_Museum_-_A_Ride_for_Liberty_--_The_Fugitive_Slaves_-_Eastman_Johnson_-

GABixlerReviews

Ray Chen Smith is a writer and teacher living in Los Angeles, California.
In his late twenties, he wrote a literary novel set in China then decided it wasn't fit for public consumption. He did, however, chop up a couple of parts and sold the chunks to literary magazines. (Both stories can be downloaded for free from his website.)
For his second novel, he decided to go unabashedly commercial, and The Jazz Cage is the result.
He is currently finishing up his third novel, a thriller titled Dawn at Midnight.
Further information--the aforementioned short stories, a more detailed biography--can be found on Ray's website:
www.raychensmith.com
He also welcomes comments, positive or otherwise, to his email address:
raychensmith@gmail.com