The Rumrunner's Boy

CRIME WRITERS OF CANADA FINALIST. YA and all ages. Historical crime fiction.
Canadians are only too happy to supply liquor to thirsty Americans during U.S. Prohibition. Running rum and whisky over to Pelee Island on Lake Erie has been a piece of cake - so far. Jarrod Hooker, seventeen-years-old, steps in for his injured, taking his spot on the boat. It's a lucrative job they cannot afford to lose. Jarrod is thrown in with rough men, many of them WW1 Vets who resent the boy. Jarrod must swallow his fears and try to carve some self-respect for himself amid deadly efforts to undermine him. But ill winds begin to blow across Lake Erie: missing liquor money, the U.S.Coast Guard stepping up patrols, and an American gangster, a rogue from the notorious Purple Gang attempts to seize control of the smuggling operation. Jarrod unable to back out reluctantly goes on his second run which begins to sound like a suicide run. Crossing the watery international border tempers flare, scores are being settled, and bullets begin to fly. Jarrod is caught in a nightmare of epic proportions. Whatever Jarrod decides, it could change his life.
Although the Canadian border is only a scant four miles away, to Jarrod it may as well be a thousand.