SOLD/Scarlet
Saving Grace psychological suspense
Debbie Babitt
Praise for Saving Grace
"Saving Grace is a riveting thriller that captures you on the first page and never lets you go. Debbie Babitt masterfully uses voice and spare, evocative prose to create a spellbinding story. Warning: Once you start this book, you won't want to stop."
--William Bernhardt, national bestselling author of The Last Chance Lawyer
"Saving Grace is a riveting thriller that captures you on the first page and never lets you go. Debbie Babitt masterfully uses voice and spare, evocative prose to create a spellbinding story. Warning: Once you start this book, you won't want to stop."
--William Bernhardt, national bestselling author of The Last Chance Lawyer
In this gripping suspense debut, the first female sheriff of a small Ozark village investigates a disappearance that echoes the crimes that shattered her town decades before.
"I'm the only one who knows what really happened to those girls..."
For twenty-four years, Mary Grace Dobbs has been searching for salvation. Orphaned at eleven, she was forced to live on the charity of her Bible salesman uncle, her wheelchair-bound aunt, and her cousin who tortured and killed small animals. At school, a bully made her life a nightmare. Everything changed when a newcomer to town became her first and only best friend. Until two months later, when the bully and the new friend vanished, never to be seen again.
Today, Mary Grace is a single mother and the first female sheriff of the small mountain town of Repentance, Arkansas, a position that doesn’t sit well with some of the less progressive of the citizens. Keeping order and her demons at bay becomes an impossible task when the black drifter who was a suspect in the earlier disappearances returns to Repentance...and another young teen vanishes. These events whip up a frenzy of anger and prejudice, stirring a pot of racial animosity with increasingly violent potential.
Struggling to hold everything together and solve the crime—while at the same time fearing for the safety of her own daughter—Mary Grace must reckon with her own dark secrets and confront a terrible truth. In doing so, she’ll be forced to face a decision no parent should ever have to make.
Set in the remote Ozark hills, where the secrets run as deep as the rushing waters of the caves that wind through town, Saving Grace blends elements of To Kill A Mockingbird with enthralling psychological suspense. This spellbinding debut novel introduces a protagonist whose concept of good and evil can shape a young girl living in the Deep South--then and now.
"I'm the only one who knows what really happened to those girls..."
For twenty-four years, Mary Grace Dobbs has been searching for salvation. Orphaned at eleven, she was forced to live on the charity of her Bible salesman uncle, her wheelchair-bound aunt, and her cousin who tortured and killed small animals. At school, a bully made her life a nightmare. Everything changed when a newcomer to town became her first and only best friend. Until two months later, when the bully and the new friend vanished, never to be seen again.
Today, Mary Grace is a single mother and the first female sheriff of the small mountain town of Repentance, Arkansas, a position that doesn’t sit well with some of the less progressive of the citizens. Keeping order and her demons at bay becomes an impossible task when the black drifter who was a suspect in the earlier disappearances returns to Repentance...and another young teen vanishes. These events whip up a frenzy of anger and prejudice, stirring a pot of racial animosity with increasingly violent potential.
Struggling to hold everything together and solve the crime—while at the same time fearing for the safety of her own daughter—Mary Grace must reckon with her own dark secrets and confront a terrible truth. In doing so, she’ll be forced to face a decision no parent should ever have to make.
Set in the remote Ozark hills, where the secrets run as deep as the rushing waters of the caves that wind through town, Saving Grace blends elements of To Kill A Mockingbird with enthralling psychological suspense. This spellbinding debut novel introduces a protagonist whose concept of good and evil can shape a young girl living in the Deep South--then and now.
About the Author
Debbie Babitt was Copy Director for two major Manhattan publishing companies. A former actress, playwright, and drama critic, she divides her time between New York and Florida.
Debbie Babitt was Copy Director for two major Manhattan publishing companies. A former actress, playwright, and drama critic, she divides her time between New York and Florida.
