Saving Grace

A Novel of Suspense

By: Debbie Babitt

Narrated by: Kate Mulligan

“I’m the only one who knows what happened to those girls....”

In this gripping suspense debut, the first female sheriff of a small mountain village investigates a disappearance that echoes the crimes that shattered her town decades before.

For 24 years, Mary Grace Dobbs has been searching for salvation. Orphaned at 11, 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 rural 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 a remote mountain town, where the secrets run as deep as the hollows, Saving Grace is at once a spell-binding tale of innocence lost and a twisty, edge-of-your-seat psychological thriller. This startling debut novel introduces a captivating protagonist whose concept of good and evil can shape a young girl - then and now.

©2021 Debbie Babitt (P)2021 Blackstone Publishing

Just not good

Saving Grace has a moderately interesting story, but its merits end there. The author is heavy-handed with the handling of themes, particularly the themes of religion, forgiveness, and evil. Dialogue was uninspired. Many plot devices were difficult to believe, and the narrator did not seem interested in the novel at all (understandably). I stuck with it to the end because I had purchased it, but I found myself impatient for it to just be done with. I would not recommend this book.

Not good

The story structure is poor. The pretense is ridiculous and there is no moment of redemption. I kept listening hoping to find some kind of story. It is lose and the characters are shallow.