In her fast-paced second novel, Runner, Ashton Lattimore plunges readers into the murky waters of liquor smuggling off Martha's Vineyard, Mass., in the summer of 1923. Reeling from the sudden death of her father, Earl, a fisherman turned rumrunner, Lena Jameson longs to escape the island but must work to keep her family afloat. She gathers a crew of her own--her brother Walter; her boyfriend, Sam; and Dee, an elegant new friend from Boston--to take over Earl's business. But as they navigate treacherous waters, real and metaphorical, Lena and her friends find much more than they bargained for.
Lattimore (All We Were Promised) paints a nuanced portrait of the island's year-round Black community, deeply rooted in the Vineyard soil and its brightly painted gingerbread cottages. She explores the hardships of structural racism, plus internal divisions caused or exacerbated by the temperance movement, rigid religious beliefs, and respectability politics. As Lena and Dee earn their keep by washing dishes while planning their next liquor run, they hear unsettling rumors about Earl's death and his connections to the underworld. Dee, meanwhile, juggles her dreams of a music career in Harlem's jazz clubs with several explosive secrets--one of which could upend Lena's world.
Lena fights to keep her head above water--which includes being taken seriously as a young Black woman in a man's dangerous game--while she and Dee must rely on their wits, their fragile new friendship, and a healthy dose of luck to keep from getting pulled under. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams