Twelve-year-old Tom Higgins is learning the craft of making whiskey. Even though Prohibition forbids the production and sale of alcoholic beverages, Tom is determined to be a good apprentice. He is, after all, a moonshiner’s son. His father has raised moonshining to an art, and Tom wants nothing more than to please this rough, distant man.
Then a preacher comes to the wilds of Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains to rid Bad Camp Hollow of the “evils of liquor.” This is when Tom and his father begin their campaign to match wits with the preacher and try to outsmart the law officers he calls in. Tom’s father is eloquent in defense of a way of life long and respectfully lived by the Higgins family. But the preacher and his pretty daughter make a powerful case against it. And when drink causes a tragedy in the community, Tom Higgins is torn….
Moonshiner’s Gold
When fourteen-year-old Riley goes to investigate some strange activity on a remote section of his family’s ranch, he meets up with a group of renegades running a moonshine still. Riley knows that this never would have happened while his father was alive, but ever since his daddy died it’s been a struggle to keep the ranch safe. Fortunately, Riley’s Grampy shows up just in time to help. With Grampy in the lead, the family sets off to find the truth, and gets caught up in a crime ring that extends farther than any of them ever imagined. A compelling mystery, this book combines an intriguing cast of characters with an oft-overlooked period in American history.