Author Description

Fearless, ambitious and determined to uphold the law, Mabel Walker Willebrandt puts Prohibition violators behind bars years before the country ever hears of Al Capone. Prohibition turns life upside down for Mabel. In a time when powerful women are an anomaly, she leaves her Los Angeles law practice in 1921 to become the nation's assistant attorney general for Prohibition enforcement. An incorruptible law enforcer, she fights to establish her authority. By 1923 she is renowned for prosecuting some of the most notorious criminals who regularly violate the law for financial gain. Despite a string of successful convictions, her career is hindered by her refusal to cooperate with politicians who accept bribes and turn a blind eye to the illicit liquor trade. This kaleidoscopic historical novel integrates southern California into the nation's Prohibition narrative. Violence in Los Angeles escalates into a full-blown rum war in the mid-1920s. Hijackers attack liquor shipments; smugglers hire gunmen, and killers threaten the civil peace. Corrupt Prohibition agents and policemen frustrate Mabel's efforts. Tainted evidence and confiscated liquor that conveniently goes missing impede prosecutions. In a meeting in Los Angeles, Mabel learns of new policing techniques to catch illegal liquor dealers and their hired killers; however, she knows that the department's actions violate the civil rights of the individuals it pursues. She returns to Washington to confer with Bureau of Intelligence Director J. Edgar Hoover and voice her concerns. Together, they devise an undercover operation to ensnare the rum-ring operatives-bypassing the LAPD-which ultimately results in indictments against some of the most infamous smugglers of the decade. Mabel Walker Willebrandt's remarkable life parallels the country's transition from a rural to an urban society and prefigures the emergence of women in national politics. "A Twist of Lemon" vividly tells the story of a fiercely independent woman who f