The Long Road Home

Joe Lee

$22.95

Debutante turned fugitive-from-justice Nancy Rutledge, who escaped from the tiny north-Mississippi town of Oakdale just before being arrested for the murder of her mother, has some unfinished business to take care of in her hometown. And just how far is she willing to go to get even with her enemies, both real and imagined?

Nancy, thanks to identity theft and a profound change of appearance, has morphed into best-selling children’s author and national sensation Chesapeake Rhea Edwards. Now living in the mountains of Colorado, she’s fooled not only thousands of book buyers but many powerful people in the publishing industry. With demand for her book sky-high, she’s in the middle of an 88-stop tour of the southeastern United States when the visit to Oakdale’s Main Street bookstore finally rolls around.

Of course Nancy knows she’s taking a huge risk by sneaking back into town fifteen months later—one false move or slip-up and she’ll certainly be hauled away in cuffs by the local police department. But not only did she coordinate all aspects of the book tour strictly to put herself in this store, the whole notion of being an author was created to bring her face to face with two people: Keller Bryan, the love of her life, and Caitlyn Rutledge, who is Nancy’s half-sister … and Keller’s fiancee. Nancy isn’t leaving town without Keller, regardless of who gets hurt—or dies. It’s the only reason she’s still alive.

“Nothing like an original plot, quirky local color characters, a fast-paced thriller, and a strong Southern voice to meld them together to get the reader’s blood boiling before the fireplace this fall.”
—Jim Fraiser, Greenwood Commonwealth

“The Long Road Home establishes Joe Lee’s significant talents as a writer to be reckoned with and a yarn spinner whose offbeat imagination rivals Carl Hiassen.”
—Sid Salter, Mississippi State University Journalist in Residence

“The final fifty pages must be read in one sitting. There’s no turning back once Nancy Rutledge puts her vengeance in motion. I felt like I was watching a Lifetime movie, via F/X. In other words, Joe Lee pulls no punches.”
— J.C. Patterson, The Madison Herald

“If Sue Grafton were reincarnated as a man, I think she’d be Joe Lee. Like Grafton, Lee’s novel is a thinking person’s mystery, with a little bit of soap opera thrown in to keep you interested along with short spates of violence.”
—Frank Zafiro, author of the River City crime series