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Starred review from January 2, 2023
Walls’s breathtaking latest (after The Silver Star) traces the trajectory of two feuding Virginia families and a woman who rises to the top of a bootlegging empire. For more than 50 years, bad blood has permeated relations between the bootlegging Kincaid family and the Bond brothers, starting with the Kincaids’ questionable acquisition of 88 acres from the Bonds. Sallie Kincaid’s enigmatic father, “the Duke,” controls an Emporium general store, warehouse, lumber mill, hauling company, and rental properties, and after a string of unexpected deaths in the family, Sallie takes charge of the family business during the Prohibition years. As “Queen of the Kincaid Rumrunners,” Sally comes to oversee a profitable business that amplifies the backwoods dispute into a full-fledged violent war with the Bonds, who avenge the Kincaids’ land grab with a calamitous act of escalation, entangling both families and exposing scandalous secrets. The thrilling plot culminates in bombshell revelations and massive conflagrations, and through it all Sallie makes for an indelible heroine as she fights for her life and livelihood. This is a stunner. Agent: Margaret Riley King and Jennifer Rudolph Walsh, WME.
Starred review from June 10, 2024
The fortunes of a powerful family rise and fall through internecine struggles for dominance and Prohibition-era politics. When Duke Kincaid's third wife dies, he summons his second daughter back to Claiborne County, VA, where she takes the reins of the family's bootlegging operation. With narration as smooth and singular as Claiborne County moonshine, Walls (The Glass Castle; The Silver Star), takes listeners through Sallie Kincaid's internal evolution through the tumultuous years after her homecoming. In Sallie, Walls creates a gutsy, wounded young woman with a reputation to grow into--the Kincaid name is a powerful one--and the determination to prove herself at a time when women had barely won the vote. Walls's fifth self-narrated audiobook and third novel playfully merges historical inspiration, a juicy story, and a natural-sounding country twang that fits the Rum Runner Queen to a (Model) T. With high-octane turf wars and high drama family secrets, the plot can occasionally strain credulity, but listeners prepared to go along for the ride are in for a good time. VERDICT A recommended pick for all libraries, given the author's popularity. Detailed rendering of the Jim Crow South and a multigenerational bootlegger operation may attract additional listeners.--Lauren Kage
Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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