April 2021 First Mystery Crime Club Pick

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. 

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