Over the Fence

March 1, 2019
Monroe continues the Neighbors series set in 1930s Alabama, which began with One House Over (2018). This tale is told from the point of view of the couple running a speakeasy in the house next door to that of Joyce and Odell. Yvonne and Milton can't keep on top of their debts even with both of them working at a restaurant and with the crowd who stops by to consume their bootlegged alcohol. Milton has a gambling problem that his wife doesn't know about, plus he's blackmailing Odell, who has a secret second family. Yvonne is jealous of Joyce and Odell, who annoy her with their put-downs even as they enjoy free drinks. When she learns about Odell's other family, she also puts the squeeze on him, fed up with his hypocrisy. For all their criminal activities, Yvonne and Milton are sympathetic, dimensional characters. Monroe brings the Deep South Prohibition-era world to life in a captivating tale of greed and consequences and primes readers to find out what happens among these complicated neighbors in the next book.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)