Exploring the bleak times during Prohibition becomes a thrill ride in Sandra Brown's BLIND TIGER.

The novel is set right after the Great War and is filled with nonstop action as we meet Laurel Plummer, who ends up in the small town of Foley, Texas, after her husband abandons her in his father's one-room shack. She is left with her sickly, premature newborn, Pearl, in a drafty cabin with no running water or electricity. But Laurel is a tough character who will not let a desperate situation keep her down.

We also are introduced to Thatcher Hutton as he jumps off a freight train in the middle of the desert, trying to get back to a Texas ranch where he had worked since he was a child. He left to join the military during the war and is hoping to return to the job he loved and the ranch owner he respected. Thatcher is a smart and honorable man who is a good fighter --- and there is a real attraction between him and Laurel.

"The historical nature of the story regarding the west Texas setting, the Texas Rangers, and how Prohibition made criminals out of those just wanting a beer is intriguing."

However, both find themselves in situations they did not anticipate. Laurel expected that she and her family were moving to Foley so her husband could get work. That didn’t happen. Thatcher thought he could earn enough money to get to the ranch in Foley, where he knew a job would be waiting for him. That didn’t happen either.

After stopping at the shack where Laurel lives with her baby and father-in-law and asking for water and directions, Thatcher ends up getting arrested for the disappearance of the town doctor's wife, Mila. She went missing the night that Thatcher appeared on their doorstep, asking if the doctor had a room for rent. Mila was kind to him and gave him something to eat. Meanwhile, Laurel has found out that her father-in-law, Irving, is not a handyman but rather a bootlegger. During Prohibition, making and selling alcohol is not just lucrative, it can be deadly, especially when those in power want to control all the business.

To be sure, there's romance here, but there's so much more. Sandra Brown creates two very likable characters with strong personalities. Laurel doesn't act like a shrinking violet when she discovers her father-in-law's real profession. Instead, she uses her brains to figure out ways to make the business better. After convincing the sheriff that he isn't the reason Mila is missing, Thatcher is offered the job of deputy, as the sheriff comes to count on him and his critical thinking skills to read people and solve problems. But there are truly venal individuals who run the local speakeasy, also called a blind tiger. Some are just guilty of loose morals, while others are being blackmailed for reasons out of their control. Some would kill over a small slight, and there are those who traffic in people. Laurel and Thatcher are in dangerous company.

The historical nature of the story regarding the west Texas setting, the Texas Rangers, and how Prohibition made criminals out of those just wanting a beer is intriguing. The auxiliary characters are also quite memorable. Readers of Jess Montgomery’s Kinship series --- set contemporaneously but in Ohio and with a female sheriff --- will appreciate the different perspective that includes similar episodes of violence that criminal behavior almost universally elicits.