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'A tour de force'
Guardian
'A bloody yet surprisingly warm-hearted spin on The Godfather. Great stuff'
The Times, Best Thrillers of 2025
Babs Dionne, doting grandmother and vicious crime matriarch, rules her small town with an iron fist. She controls the flow of drugs into its borders with the help of her loyal lieutenants, girlfriends since they were teenagers, and her eldest daughter, Lori, a former soldier struggling with addiction.
When a drug cartel discovers that its numbers are down in the area, they send 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...
Genre: Mystery
Guardian
'A bloody yet surprisingly warm-hearted spin on The Godfather. Great stuff'
The Times, Best Thrillers of 2025
Babs Dionne, doting grandmother and vicious crime matriarch, rules her small town with an iron fist. She controls the flow of drugs into its borders with the help of her loyal lieutenants, girlfriends since they were teenagers, and her eldest daughter, Lori, a former soldier struggling with addiction.
When a drug cartel discovers that its numbers are down in the area, they send 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...
Genre: Mystery
Praise for this book
"A study of families, power, and violence with the sweep and texture of folklore." - Flynn Berry
"Darkly funny, shocking, and unblinking, The Savage, Noble Death of Babs Dionne is a tour de force with a palpable rendering of place and time and unforgettable characters. Who would guess that there's another Godfather saga, but this one exists in northern Maine and the principal in charge is named Babs Dionne?" - C J Box
"What Dennis Lehane has done for the Irish of South Boston, Ron Currie does for the Acadians of Maine - lifting the lid on a community bound by the fiercest bonds of history, with all its love and pain. Heartfelt, beguiling, gritty, and true." - Justin Cronin
"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; and the perfect ending that leaves you teary and utterly satisfied." - Angie Kim
"The Savage, Noble Death of Babs Dionne reads like a French-Canadian The Godfather, with the toughest women this side of Carmela Soprano. Beautifully written, with a wonderfully rendered, authentic Maine setting that you won't find on a postcard, this is the rare novel of equal appeal to fans of Elizabeth Strout and Dennis Lehane." - Michael Koryta
"The Savage, Noble Death of Babs Dionne is an ambitious novel that revolves around crime but that's really about class, prejudice, addiction, exploitation, war, trauma, loyalty, friendship, and above all about family. A remarkable achievement that's also a deeply enjoyable reading experience on every page." - Chris Pavone
"Ruthless, beautiful, cutthroat, gorgeous, poignant, incendiary, and important, The Savage, Noble Death of Babs Dionne is simply one of the best novels I've read in years. It reveals the sharpest truths, the deepest cuts, and the toughest love. I am in awe." - Ivy Pochoda
"A furious page-turner that kept me up way past my bedtime, a beautiful hymn to the lingering ghosts of Maine's French-Canadian past, and a harrowing meditation on what it means to assimilate into the great American experiment. The authenticity reaches up off the page and grabs you with two hands. Ron Currie is a literary beast." - Matthew Quick
"Literary thrillers just don't come any better than Ron Currie's The Savage, Noble Death of Babs Dionne. It's profoundly serious and terrifying in equal measure." - Richard Russo
"Darkly funny, shocking, and unblinking, The Savage, Noble Death of Babs Dionne is a tour de force with a palpable rendering of place and time and unforgettable characters. Who would guess that there's another Godfather saga, but this one exists in northern Maine and the principal in charge is named Babs Dionne?" - C J Box
"What Dennis Lehane has done for the Irish of South Boston, Ron Currie does for the Acadians of Maine - lifting the lid on a community bound by the fiercest bonds of history, with all its love and pain. Heartfelt, beguiling, gritty, and true." - Justin Cronin
"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; and the perfect ending that leaves you teary and utterly satisfied." - Angie Kim
"The Savage, Noble Death of Babs Dionne reads like a French-Canadian The Godfather, with the toughest women this side of Carmela Soprano. Beautifully written, with a wonderfully rendered, authentic Maine setting that you won't find on a postcard, this is the rare novel of equal appeal to fans of Elizabeth Strout and Dennis Lehane." - Michael Koryta
"The Savage, Noble Death of Babs Dionne is an ambitious novel that revolves around crime but that's really about class, prejudice, addiction, exploitation, war, trauma, loyalty, friendship, and above all about family. A remarkable achievement that's also a deeply enjoyable reading experience on every page." - Chris Pavone
"Ruthless, beautiful, cutthroat, gorgeous, poignant, incendiary, and important, The Savage, Noble Death of Babs Dionne is simply one of the best novels I've read in years. It reveals the sharpest truths, the deepest cuts, and the toughest love. I am in awe." - Ivy Pochoda
"A furious page-turner that kept me up way past my bedtime, a beautiful hymn to the lingering ghosts of Maine's French-Canadian past, and a harrowing meditation on what it means to assimilate into the great American experiment. The authenticity reaches up off the page and grabs you with two hands. Ron Currie is a literary beast." - Matthew Quick
"Literary thrillers just don't come any better than Ron Currie's The Savage, Noble Death of Babs Dionne. It's profoundly serious and terrifying in equal measure." - Richard Russo
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