Annabel Lee Donovan is a
bootlegger’s daughter. Though her father
isn’t into bootlegging for life, and he plans to get out when he’s got enough
money saved to give Annabel Lee a fancy home and servants to attend her every need, he’s
still a bootlegger. And bootlegging is
against the law in 1925.
Annabel Lee has been uprooted from her home more
times than she can remember. All she really
wants is to belong somewhere - not fancy dresses, all-night parties and high-brow friends
- just a place to call her own. She wants a
domestic place, with a view of flowers from the window and a farm animal or two –
nothing elaborate. But her father
insists that she’s a lady, and someday she’ll live like one. It’s all he’s every really wanted for
her.
Annabel Lee has tried to convince her father that
she doesn’t need all that; she doesn’t need to be a lady. She just needs to know that he’ll quit
bootlegging and running from the law. When
they move to Henderson, Missouri, she hopes that this move will be their last, and that
she’ll finally be able to convince her father to stop his outlaw behavior and settle
down. It seems that she just might be making
a little headway towards the goal of living a law-abiding life until strange things about
town begin to happen.
And it all begins with their backwoods
moonshine-swilling neighbors, who just happen to have a not-so-secret still up in the
woods. Add to the story a run-away boy, an
undercover agent, a villainous group of criminals, a lazy Sheriff, and Dorothy Garlock’s
winning style, and you’ll get a very pleasant reading experience.
Dorothy Garlock has created another complex
historical romance in High on a Hill. The
detailed background and true-to-life historical backdrop make this story truly
interesting, and the wonderful complexity of her characters – and their budding
romance – will have Garlock fans sighing “she’s done it again”.
Reviewed for Road to Romance by Janean Nusz, AuthorsArt.com
February 24, 2003
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