The Bootlegger's Legacy — Ted Clifton

The Bootlegger's Legacy was an IBPA Benjamin Franklin national award winner and has also won the CIPA EVVY mystery award.  

This debut novel takes new twists and turns for a mystery/adventure that will change the way you think about family sagas forever.  It is the prequel to Dog Gone Lies also by Ted Clifton.

A treasure hunt for lost millions hidden by a bootlegger in the 1950s, whose unlawful past haunts his family even after his death.  The bootlegger's son, Mike Allen, and his best friend, Joe Meadows, are both looking for a way to change their troubled lives--they need money and to rediscover a sense of meaning.  The search begins with a cryptic letter left by the bootlegger father.  It is full of clues and hints on the hidden treasure, but also vague and mysterious about howto find the treasure.  Mike and Joe embark on a journey through three states and fifty years of history.  What they find goes beyond money and transforms them both.  New relationships are formed; old ones die; nothing remains the same.

The background story of a bootlegger in dry Oklahoma leads us into a world not many even knew existed.Gangsters and corrupt politicians allow the illegal activity of selling booze to flourish in the middle of the Bible Belt.  Wide open bars catering to the rich and famous, the lowlifes, gangsters and political leaders were feeding a large under-world business of selling illicit liquor.The bootlegger, Pat Allen, complicates his less than upstanding life by falling in love with a most desirable mistress, Sally Thompson.  Their romance and tragic ending led to many surprising consequences years later for the next generation.