Another excellent book about a woman sherriff in the early part of the 20th century. I find Sherriff Lily Ross to be a very likable character and the setting of these books, rural Ohio on the edge of the Appalachian mountains, to be an intriguing place.

It is Thanksgiving and Lily Ross is helping her mother prepare for a big dinner for family and friends. She is looking forward to a day off and perhaps also looking forward to the company of Benjamin Russo who has been invited by her mother to join them. Benjamin works for the Department of Mines but during World War I he and Lily's deceased husband were friends. Lily is not ready for a new attachment but she does like Benjamin. At another farmstead in Bronwyn county Fiona Weaver Vogel is recovering from morning sickness and hoping to get downstairs to help her aunt prepare for Thanksgiving dinner. Fiona and her first husband were acquaintances of the Rosses but after his death Fiona did not lose much time in moving on to George Vogel, a wealthy businessman. They have been living in Cincinnati but George wants to buy the farm Fiona's aunt lives on to use as a storage place for illegal alcohol. Fiona's aunt is a recent widow and George thinks that Fiona will be able to persuade her aunt to sell the farm. George has big plans for expanding into Bronwyn County. Lily's hopes for a relaxing Thanksgiving Day are smashed when the local doctor and a young neighbour girl show up on her doorstep because the girl's young brother, Zebediah, has gotten some bad moonshine. Zebediah had been keeping watch over a store of moonshine that was set up for local folks to sample and buy and he saw two men that he did not know. When one of the men shot the other Zebediah waited until the gun wielder left and went over to help the other man. He took a few slugs of whiskey and now he is near death. He was able to tell his sister that the still belonged to Lily's good friend, Marvena. Now Lily has to go out into the cold to see Zebediah and possibly investigate her friend for moonshining. And she also has to investigate the shooting and find the injured or dead man. Lily and the doctor manage to get Zebediah to hospital; Zebediah is suffering from juvenile diabetes, not alchol poisoning. With insulin treatment he recovers and he tells Lily about what he witnessed. Lily believes that her husband's half-brother, Luther, along with George Vogel may somehow be involved but she has to find proof. Fiona could be a source of information if she can only get away from Vogel who she is regretting having married.

Prohibition plays a big role in this book. I did not know that it was not illegal to drink alcohol under Prohibition. Only making alcohol was illegal. So rich folks who had stashed away lots of liquor and wine continued to imbibe. You could even buy bricks of grapes in the stores which carried a warning that reconstituting the grapes with water and sugar and storing in a dark cupboard could cause ferementation which of course is exactly what everyone did. The government ordered industrial alcohol to be mixed with methanol, which is poisonous, in order to stop people drinking industrial alcohol. Instead of stopping drinking people poisoned themselves. All in all Prohibition did nothing to stem alcohol consumption and it caused some people to become quite wealthy from supplying illegal liquor. ( )

Just like the first two books, The Stills was a great, hard to put down, read. Lily has settled in as Sheriff and she is living again after the loss of her husband. Prohibition is still the law of the land but she only reluctantly enforces the law. But when a young boy almost dies from drinking bad moonshine Lily needs to be more than reluctant about the law.

But one of the people breaking the law is her best friend Marvena. And her old nemesis George Vogel – the man she blames for the death of her husband. George is looking to expand his bootlegging operation and unfortunately she is beholden to him and fears what he will want when he calls in his marker.

What follows is a richly detailed, deeply involving novel where good and bad are not always so easily defined. Like with the two previous books, once I started it was very, very hard to stop reading. I am very sorry to see the end of this series for these three books have been some of the best I have read over the last three years. ( )

Author Jess Montgomery continues her marvelous Kinship series with a look at Prohibition in The Stills. There are two main voices in the book: that of uncompromising Sheriff Lily Ross, a woman who refuses to have a photo of her family hanging in her office because she "doesn't need to remind some folks that they think [she] should be at home," and Fiona Vogel, a woman who's gone along with the accepted ole of women in society but who has decided that "she wants to be in control of her life. To thrive."

The Stills is a nuanced portrait of an era with strong characters who show readers how people dealt, not only with Prohibition, but also with diseases like diabetes and asthma. The role of women in society looms large with the differing approaches of Lily and Fiona. Lily is a straight shooter. She pulls no punches, and her friends know that she will uphold the law regardless the identity of the law breaker. Buffeted by smaller stones and other debris, Lily is a boulder in the river that the water is forced to go around. Fiona is a bird feathering her nest with every little advantage and trick she can gather in the hopes that she can construct a safe place to live. While Fiona hasn't had much luck with men and wants a life where she can ignore them completely if she should choose to do so, Benjamin is a man in Lily's life who seems to like her just as she is. This is a relationship that should prove interesting in future books.

I always learn something when reading one of Montgomery's Kinship mysteries. In the case of The Stills, it was Prohibition and disease as well as a fascinating historical personage of whom I'd never heard: U.S. Assistant Attorney General Mabel Walker Willebrandt, who was known as "the First Lady of Law." People who believe that they can't learn anything from reading mere fiction are sadly misinformed.

The Stills-- as well as the other two Kinship mysteries The Widows and The Hollows-- is a splendid portrait of a time, a place, and the strong women who forged lives for themselves in it. If you haven't read these books, I urge you to do so. Begin at the beginning with The Widows. You can thank me later.

(Review copy courtesy of the publisher and Net Galley) ( )