The economics and emotional effects of Prohibition on a rural area make for a rousing plot in The Stills, Jess Montgomery's third novel set in the stark Appalachian coal-mining Bronwyn County, Ohio. In cities, Prohibition breeds organized crime, but, in hardscrabble rural areas, the needs are more basic: earn money to feed a family, pay for a child's expensive medicines, escape soul-crushing poverty.
Sheriff Lily Ross is expected to enforce the Volstead Act, which, in 1927, is in its seventh year, yet "so filled with loopholes that it was flimsier than worn-out washrags." She sometimes ignores the stills in the county's "hills and hollers" unless "a moonshiner raises too much of a ruckus, or someone--usually a frustrated wife--complains." But things change when a 12-year-old boy, hired to protect a still, nearly dies from tainted moonshine. Meanwhile, Fiona Vogel returns to her hometown with her powerful husband, George, and his several violent henchmen. George plans to start a bootlegging operation selling toxic wood alcohol to force out competitors.
The Stills richly delves into class differences, religious obsession, greed and Prohibition's failures. Montgomery (The Hollows) forcefully shows Lily's struggles in an occupation unheard of for a woman during the 1920s while caring for her family on a modest salary. Lily, based on Maude Collins, Ohio's first female sheriff, inherited the job from her late husband, but has earned the community's respect. While Fiona seems, at first, to be superficially concerned with money and finery, she shows an inner strength and a savvy business acumen. Montgomery's strong storytelling shines in The Stills. --Oline H. Cogdill, freelance reviewer