First published 2025
Jewell Sawbrook agrees to burn a boat for insurance money. Her family needs cash. The Sawbrooks have smuggled goods across the Michigan-Canada border for generations, but their patriarch Edward is dying of cancer and their money is gone. Jewell's sister Lucy works as a park ranger, trying to protect the very land their mother Rhoda wants to exploit. Their brother Buckner returned from military service broken by alcoholism. When Jewell sets the boat ablaze, she discovers too late that someone was inside. Now the fractured family must navigate both the law and their own bitter disappointments. Edward's illness forces them to confront decades of pain while Lucy battles Rhoda over the family land. Buckner struggles with his demons as the insurance scheme unravels. The Sawbrooks know every hidden waterway and back road between two countries, but they cannot escape the consequences of Jewell's desperate choice. Three generations of smuggling expertise may not be enough to save them from what they have become.
Genres: drama, literary-fiction, american-fiction, crime, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: dark, emotionally-complex, gritty, introspective, tragic
Tropes: consequences-of-desperation, fractured-family, generational-conflict
Setting: Michigan, Canada, Michigan-Canada border
Period: Contemporary
366 pages · Paperback · Grand Central Publishing
Content warnings: addiction, alcohol-abuse, death, murder, terminal-illness