Saving Gracie by Nancy DeMarco
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Saving Gracie was a thoroughly delightful read. Much like a pot luck held by a denizen of quaint, seemingly quiet Coyne Falls, New Hampshire this story is a cobbling together of story elements that serves to satisfy a gamut of literary appetites. The book’s blurb only hints at what lies between the covers of this book. Discovering the myriad layers of this town’s mysteries is only half the fun of the reading.
The book starts out from Gracie’s point of view, introducing us to an elderly woman who defies her age in thinking and physical mobility. She’s also slightly crazy by the wider world’s standards, able to see and speak to the dead, and lives in a group home with a host of other characters with their own mental illnesses and quirks. Gracie also has a history of knowing and/or predicting things she otherwise would have no business knowing so when she brings what she initially thinks is a disembodied head to the local police with a prediction that someone is going to die that night there is mixed reception.
It is the discovery of this purse that leads the book’s other primary character, Marcel Trudeau, a local police officer and skeptical recipient of said purse deep into a mystery that stems years into the past – a mystery that somehow always ends up involving crazy Gracie and the newest ghost haunting her. This time it’s Hannah, a spunky redhead determined to force Gracie into digging up secrets the town would surely have preferred left buried.
Coyne Falls and its residents feel and read entirely genuine, the connections between the characters (primary and otherwise) skillfully revealed through great storytelling. The mysteries eventually solved – some revealed, others tactfully kept under cloak of ignorance – made for unexpected twists and turns. Light-hearted and respectful, Saving Gracie delivers a savory read, netting it the highest rating possible.


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