Meet Jane Loeb Rubin, author of "Mayhem in the Mountains" at Bethany Beach Books on Sunday, July 26th at 630pm!

1924 in the Catskills sizzled with chaos. The region’s turbulent history during that era could easily have erased any trace of the Borscht Belt’s grand hotels. Prohibition fueled bootleggers and whiskey stills—Dutch Schultz ran an underground distillery in nearby Ulster County. Meanwhile, the Ku Klux Klan stormed north after WWI, targeting new immigrants they viewed as threats to the American way of life. Amid the turmoil, the Isaacson family stood their ground, fiercely defending their land, livelihoods, and each other.

About the author: Jane Rubin's research into New York City’s history, restrictive reproductive laws, and period medicine led to her award-winning historical trilogy. Across the series, engaging characters face shifting roles of midwives, pregnancy risks, the infamous Blackwell’s Workhouse, and the challenge of achieving financial security. The timeline opens with In the Hands of Women (5/23 Level Best Books) and its prequel, Threadbare (5/24 Level Best Books), both acclaimed by historical fiction fans. Over There (6/25 Level Best Books), the third installment, moves to 1917 as medically trained members of the Isaacson family travel to France during World War I. It was Shortlisted by the Historical Novel Society’s 2024 First Chapters Competition and is a Finalist for the Chanticleer Hemingway Award for Twentieth Century Wartime Fiction.

Mayhem in the Mountains (6/26 Level Best Books), the fourth book in the series, follows the survivors to the Catskills in the summer of 1924, when bootleggers, gangsters, and the KKK disrupt the peaceful ambiance of the region.