Ripple

Amazon #1 Bestseller
Highly Recommended by Midwest Book Review

When high-powered attorney Helen Thompson discovers that her husband has abused their fifteen-year-old daughter and plans to use her in a sex ring, she takes a golf club to his head.

And she doesn’t stop there. With the last of the perpetrators still at large, Helen escapes with Phoebe to a safe house, where a team of lawyers and therapists help them begin the painful journey to healing. But even surrounded by safe walls and good people, Helen’s desperate efforts to save her daughter may not be enough.

A dark, gripping, but uplifting read, Ripple handles sensitive material with compassion and conviction, ultimately weaving a tapestry of healing that celebrates the human spirit.

More on Ripple

Two of the protagonists in Ripple are lawyers, with one the main suspect in a potential murder case. Although it addresses legal issues, this is not a John Grisham courtroom case. The reality is that the vast majority of cases are settled outside the courtroom, and this book, while a dark fairytale, is also realistic. It captures the nitty gritty reality of how lawyers live, practice and feel. Throughout Ripple, lawyers strategize, negotiate and advise, all the while balancing work and family.

Ripple delves into the nature of evil, without seeking to provide final philosophical answers to the issue of what makes a human commit evil acts. Ripple takes the reader into evil spaces inhabited by sociopaths, but it doesn’t immerse the reader in evil. Moments of humor and lightness and bonding between friends are interspersed with more serious scenes.

Ripple’s mother-daughter protagonists spend a great deal of time at a safe house for domestic abuse victims. The women who own the safe house provide levity even as they protect the daughter from serious physical harm.

Ripple will resonate with fans of women’s literature. While the author takes care not to vilify men, the reality is that most rapists and sexual abusers are men. The twenty-five percent or more of readers who have been sexually assaulted will find shades of their own story echoed by the inward struggles of the main characters. Some readers will take heart or find guidance in overcoming their own difficulties. Women who loved Eat, Pray, Love or the more intense The Color Purple will want to read this book.

Like The Color Purple, Ripple is principally literary fiction. With the increased popularity of books like The Lovely Bones and Room, as well as the publicity afforded to well-written books by celebrities like Oprah Winfrey, the target audience for Ripple will include literature aficionados and fans of psychological thrillers. Fortunately for the latter audience, Ripple’s action and suspense will keep hands turning pages and books flying off shelves.

Ripple is deep and often dark. But in the end, it shines a light on the human condition. It celebrates the triumph of the human spirit in the face of great tribulation. Ripple is about thriving. It is, at its very essence, a tale of hope, healing and redemption.