“Simply one of the best novels I’ve read in years...I am in awe.”
“The Savage, Noble Death of Babs Dionne has everything I want in a novel: exquisite writing that’s at once gritty, poetic, and wry; an unputdownable story that grips you hard and doesn’t let go; a fantastic cast of complex characters; and the perfect ending that leaves you teary and utterly satisfied. I love love love this book!”
Your ancestors breathe through you. Sometimes, they call for vengeance.
Babs Dionne, proud Franco-American, doting grandmother, and vicious crime matriarch, rules her small town of Waterville, Maine, with an iron fist. She controls the flow of drugs into Little Canada with the help of her loyal lieutenants, girlfriends since they were teenagers, and her eldest daughter, Lori, a Marine vet struggling with addiction.
When a drug kingpin discovers that his numbers are down in the upper northeast, he sends a malevolent force, known only as The Man, to investigate. At the same time, Babs's youngest daughter, Sis, has gone missing, which doesn't seem at all like a coincidence. In twenty-four hours, Sis will be found dead, and the whole town will seek shelter from Babs’s wrath.
The Savage, Noble Death of Babs Dionne is a crime saga like no other, with a ferocious matriarch at its bruised, beating heart. With sharp wit and profound empathy, award-winning author Ron Currie delivers an unforgettable novel exploring love, retribution, and the ancestral roots that both nurture and trap us.