Debbie Babitt

For twenty-four years, Mary Grace Dobbs has been searching for salvation from a traumatic childhood. After her parents died when she was just eleven, she went to live with her Bible salesman uncle, her wheelchair-bound aunt, and a cousin who tortured and killed small animals. Her school life was just as unhappy as her time at home, and her days were haunted by a bully--until, briefly, a newcomer to town became her best friend. Then the bully and the new friend vanished within days of one another, never to be seen again.Today, Mary Grace is the first female sheriff of her small mountain town, a position that doesn't sit well with some of the less progressive of the citizens. She's the first to hear when a drifter last seen around the time of the disappearance all those years back returns to town, and the first to field the slew of old rumors he brings with him. When another young teen goes missing, those murmurings 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 locals' roots, Saving Grace is a twisty work of psychological suspense with a captivating protagonist at its core.

Saving Grace

The line between justice and revenge blurs when a judge takes the law into her own hands.

First Victim

Man on the Train

In this gripping suspense debut with a jaw-dropping ending, the first female sheriff of a small Ozark village investigates a disappearance that echoes the crimes that shattered her town decades before. For twenty-four years, Mary Grace Dobbs has been searching for salvation. Orphaned at eleven, she was forced to go live with her Bible salesman uncle, wheelchair-bound aunt, and a 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 only best friend, and changed a second time when that friend and another classmate vanished two months later, never to be seen again. Today, Mary Grace is the first female sheriff of her Arkansas town, a position that doesn’t sit well with some of the locals. Keeping order and her demons at bay becomes an impossible task when the Black drifter suspected in the earlier disappearances returns to Repentance...and another sixth grader vanishes. With old prejudices and new secrets spilling out into the open, the modern world soon illuminates the village’s darkest corners. The case becomes even more fraught as a cult of white supremacists brings its gospel of hate to Repentance and violence explodes, claiming more lives. Racing to find the missing girl while fearing for the safety of her own sixth-grade daughter, Mary Grace must confront an unspeakable truth—and face a decision no parent should ever have to make. Set in the remote Ozark hills, where the secrets run as deep as the hollows, Saving Grace blends elements of To Kill a Mockingbird with twisty, edge-of-your-seat psychological suspense. This startling debut novel introduces a captivating protagonist whose concept of good and evil can shape a young girl—then and now.

Debbie Babitt

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