Disclosure: I received this book as a BookLook Blogger. Post contains affiliate links; opinions shared are mine.

Stories with down-home appeal don’t often come my way, but The Angel’s Share was a great find.  Recently published by James Markert, this novel is based in my home state of Kentucky.  Now, I’m not a bourbon drinker, but I still recognize the importance of distilleries to the Bluegrass economy.  The richness of this literary drink was a surprise!

In this story, remnants of the Prohibition follow the sleepy town of Twisted Tree like a bad dream.  Though the McFee family seemed to fare better than most, it was only a financial facade.  They had their share of devastating loss times two.  Although it took a while to really get into the mystery portion of the plot, it was worth the wait.   The Angel’s Share wasn’t the type of book I could skim.  My tendency to breeze through a book stopped in its tracks because I just had to savor the chapters.  So many characters took shape that it was sometimes hard to keep up!

There was an otherworldly feel that I didn’t expect, and I enjoyed the sweet children who helped bring some levity to an otherwise heavy book.  My only issue was that so many events seemed to be unrelated, or that their connection was stretched, until I almost forgot about them.  In some ways, I wish this had been a series with each book devoted to a certain “chapter” in William’s life, or maybe focusing on one of his family members instead.

In passing, one of Markert’s other book topics is mentioned in The Angel’s Share. I’m interested in learning more about A White Wind Blew, a story about a doctor who uses music to help patients in a 1929 tuberculosis sanatorium.

Do you like to read books about familiar places?