Amazon.com Review
Setting: Missouri, 1925
Sensuality: 6
At 21, Annabel Lee Donovan wants nothing more than to settle down and live a normal, quiet life, but her father's bootlegging business keeps them moving every few months. In preparation for one last big score, her father moves Annabel to a house high on a hill above the small town of Henderson, Missouri. But the new location proves to be a fatal mistake, for the people and events in Henderson will change their lives forever.
Unlike how it was with past residences, Annabel quickly finds herself making friends in Henderson, and when she meets Corbin Appleby, she's instantly drawn to him. She has no inkling that he's an ex-lawman working undercover for the local marshal, nor that fate has sent Corbin to save her. Dark forces are afoot and Annabel, Corbin, her father, and their friends are threatened by powerful bootleggers and clannish hill-folk neighbors. If they can't find a way to thwart the villain determined to harm Annabel, elude the big city gangsters sent to kill them, and unmask the local mobster hiding in the community, they're all liable to die.
Author Dorothy Garlock is a longtime resident of the American Midwest, and her descriptions and dialogue portraying 1920s Missouri ring with authenticity and authority. The exploration of the daily lives of middle-class, Midwestern Americans in the difficult days of Prohibition is an intriguing facet of this novel. A spinoff from the highly successful On the Edge of Town, High on a Hill is sure to satisfy established Garlock fans and gain the author many new readers. --Lois Faye Dyer
From Publishers Weekly
Prolific romance author Dorothy Garlock returns to 1920s Missouri in her latest historical. At 21, Annabel Lee Donovan leads a nomadic life, constantly uprooted by the urgent demands of her father's mysterious occupation. When they move to a house on a hill outside the small town of Henderson, she's determined to create a home. With the help of rough but loyal Boone, her father's best friend, Annabel plants a garden and buys a few chickens and a cow. The young woman's domestic dream is threatened by the suspicion (soon confirmed) that her father is a bootlegger and by the lascivious moonshiner who has his eye on her. Meanwhile, the whole town is curious about Corbin Appleby, the handsome lawman from Garlock's The Edge of Town, and no one is more interested than Annabel. This volatile mix of illegal alcohol and love at first sight culminates in gangster warfare and a passionate elopement. National bestseller Garlock is clearly comfortable with her gifts as a storyteller, and she knows her audience. The romance between Annabel and Corbin is sweetly nostalgic (they keep their passion in check until their wedding night), but Garlock isn't afraid to be earthy and funny, nor does she shy away from serious topics like rape and domestic violence.
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