Historical Romantic Suspense published by Grand Central 3 Aug 21
This specific time in U.S. history – the 1920s, Prohibition era – is not a favorite of mine. However, I began reading Blind Tiger with all the confidence in the world that I would love the story and the characters, all because it’s by Sandra Brown. I’ve learned not to doubt any of my favorite authors, and 99.9% of the time that lesson has been well taught.
Laurel’s husband springs on her they’re moving to another part of Texas to live with his father and the job waiting for him. So their little family heads out and Laurel learns when they arrive her father-in-law, Irv, knew nothing of her and her daughter. After an unexpected tragedy, Laurel is grateful for the rundown shack Irv keeps over their heads. It’s there she meets Thatcher when he is forced to part ways with training-hitching hobos and he ends up in her yard, tired and thirsty.
He’s on his way home after mustering out of the service with the end of the war. He has a beloved mentor and a job waiting for him in the Texas Panhandle. But things don’t go anywhere near planned, and it seems the entire town of Foley is against him, at least until he can prove his innocence. While he understands Laurel’s need to keep him at arm’s length, he finds he can’t get her out of his head.
I enjoyed the slow build of the relationship between these two. It’s Thatcher who’s eventually pushed too far and puts Laurel on notice of his feelings toward her. Now she can’t get him out of her head, even more than before. All the while bootleggers are brewing moonshine and taking down competitors left and right. Ms. Brown does an outstanding job of getting the reader in a Prohibition state of mind to experience what it must have been like at the time, especially in Texas where a good percentage of the state was dry anyway. Laurel is a strong woman with a spine of steel when needed, and Thatcher is a confident and sexy cowboy who won me over in no time.
The secondary characters are all well done, even the Blind Tiger – aka speakeasy – madam, the very overly corrupt mayor and his bootlegger of a cohort – and they’re all after Laurel when she wades into their perceived territory. Even the sheriff has his unlawful foibles, but he’s one who can be forgiven, even despite the twist we learn from him near the end. There’s a few twists and turns you don’t see coming, so to say you’re on the edge of your seat through this book is an understatement.
I tried taking my time reading this one, wanting it to last, since it will be another year before the next Sandra Brown novel. Alas, I was finished reading way too soon. But I enjoyed every darned thing about this story. I highly recommend it.
Grade: A
Summary:
The year 1920 comes in with a roar in this rousing and suspenseful novel by #1 New York Times bestselling author Sandra Brown. Prohibition is the new law of the land, but murder, mayhem, lust, and greed are already institutions in the Moonshine Capitol of Texas.
Thatcher Hutton, a war-weary soldier on the way back to his cowboy life, jumps from a moving freight train to avoid trouble . . . and lands in more than he bargained for. On the day he arrives in Foley, Texas, a local woman goes missing. Thatcher, the only stranger in town, is suspected of her abduction, and worse. Standing between him and exoneration are a corrupt mayor, a crooked sheriff, a notorious cathouse madam, a sly bootlegger, feuding moonshiners . . . and a young widow whose soft features conceal an iron will.
What was supposed to be a fresh start for Laurel Plummer turns to tragedy. Left destitute but determined to dictate her own future, Laurel plunges into the lucrative regional industry, much to the dislike of the good ol’ boys, who have ruled supreme. Her success quickly makes her a target for cutthroat competitors, whose only code of law is reprisal. As violence erupts, Laurel and—now deputy—Thatcher find themselves on opposite sides of a moonshine war, where blood flows as freely as whiskey.
No excerpt available.
