Reeling from her husband’s betrayal with another woman, Grace has lost any sense of belonging to her own life. The certainties are gone and she has nothing to replace them. Only her children are proof of any kind of achievement, and even they are teenagers on the brink of leaving. Her one consolation is a book that seems aimed completely at her plight, full of mysticism and myth. She knows it’s only psychobabble, yet it speaks to her when no one else is listening. When she hears the writer is doing a book signing nearby, she is the first in line.

Enter Richard Ortega. He once made a good living out of this book and others like it. Now reading tastes have moved on, and no one seems to want his brand of fiction. He misses the fame of yesteryear; he’s even jealous that other writers are so popular they need protection from their fans, a problem that only seems to add to their fame.

Then Grace turns up, and Richard sees how, with a little tweaking of her behaviour, he can appear to have the same problems as the other, more successful writers – namely a reader who loves his books so much, she cannot leave him alone. By his reckoning, Grace can be like any character in a novel of his own creation, obedient and biddable, a slave to her creator.

Grace needs to find a way to find herself again, fast, or else lose herself to Richard’s manipulations. It means resisting the forces that would make her somebody else’s creature, a character ready to lie down on the page of a very bad writer. Time is pressing, and Grace needs to save herself.

Penelope Evans introduces Saving Grace

“Very disturbing” – Good Reads

Currently available as an e book here