American
Bourbon
by
Jennifer Jenkins
Genre:
Fiction, Drama, Suspense
“Jennifer
Jenkins’s AMERICAN BOURBON is a compelling and potent family saga
filled with evocative characters as strong and flinty as the
Appalachia hills from whence they come, set against a smooth plot
that goes down with an easy, supple, clean finish.” –Tony Ray
Morris, author of DEEP RIVER BLUES
“Peopled
with a cast of characters and a setting out of an early Cormac
McCarthy novel, American Bourbon . . . starts out with a burn,
working its way through you, then settling into your bones, where
memories of the journey linger.” – Jeff Talarigo, Author of THE
PEARL DIVER
“A
day of reckoning, as thick as the fog in Virginia’s Blue Ridge
Mountains, looms over the McKinsey clan in this spirited tale of
fury, whiskey and grief. And while Jenkins’ rendering of Caleb, the
abusive and hard-driving patriarch who parlays an illegal moonshining
operation into a multi-million dollar company, is harsh, there is
grace to be found among his three grown children as they find their
way back to one another. Illuminating, nuanced and heartfelt.” –
Laurie Loewenstein, Author of DEATH OF A RAINMAKER
When
an illegal moonshine still explodes deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains,
the McKinsey family’s world-famous (and legal) whiskey, Bourbon
Sweet Tea, is threatened. Government agents swarm the area, eager to
implicate Sweet Tea founder Caleb McKinsey, who was a notorious
bootlegger before going legit. Finding out he is dying, McKinsey’s
ready to hand on his legacy. But none of his children are on speaking
terms. His daughter Brigit is determined to remake the company
against her father’s will, while his sons want nothing to do with
their abusive father. When Caleb dangles a lucrative inheritance if
all his children return, Brigit and her older brother Mack grudgingly
call a truce to find missing brother Kieran. They journey to New York
City, where Kieran fled after his girlfriend disappeared. As crimes
from Caleb’s past promise to destroy Bourbon Sweet Tea, the only
way to save their company is for Brigit to convince her brothers to
embrace the family legends, and live as outlaws once again.
Jennifer
Jenkins has written for Hippocampus Magazine, NonBinary
Review, Up North Lit, Canopy Review, Parentheses
Journal, and others. She earned two Glimmer Train Fiction
Award honorable mentions and a nomination for a PEN America Short
Story Award. She has also worked in the theater, with Manhattan
Theatre Club, Sondheim’s Young Playwrights, and the PBS series
Great Performances.
$15
Amazon – 2 winners!
I like that it stats out as an illegal moonshining operation and turns into a successful business. Sounds like lots of family drama included. Thanks for the chance.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment. Caleb McKinsey worked hard to make it all legal, but he may have a secret or two up his sleeve that will affect his children, his employees, and the whole town.
DeleteThis sounds really good!
ReplyDeleteIt is a good read, if I do say so myself! If you are disappointed, feel free to let me know.
DeleteI would so enjoy reading this book and I like the cover too. How long did it take to write it? It sounds like they lived hard lives in the book.
ReplyDelete