In S.M. Freedman's Blood Atonement (Dundurn $22.99) Grace DeRoche escapes the fundamentalist Mormon compound of Brigham and works to prosecute its leaders. But when loyalists, including her own family, commit mass suicide to avoid jail, Grace retreats into solitude. Racked with guilt and suffering from dissociative identity disorder brought on by childhood abuse, Grace’s life is fragmented and full of blind spots. Dissociative triggers are everywhere, and she never knows when an alter personality will take the reins. When other Brigham escapees die under suspicious circumstances, Grace’s tenuous hold on reality crumbles. Notes left at each scene quote scripture and accuse the deceased of committing sins so grievous that atonement can only be achieved through the spilling of blood. As evidence mounts against her and one of her alter personalities becomes the prime suspect, Grace must determine if she’s a murderer … or the next victim.

Recovering from a near-fatal accident on her 27^th birthday, up-and-coming artist Eve Gold is desperate to return to her old way of life in S.M. Freeman's psychological thriller, The Day She Died (Dundurn $18.99). But brain damage leaves Eve confused by repressed memories of a troubled childhood destroyed by lies and even a suspicious death. Does she cling to stories that helped her survive her upbringing or unearth the secrets she buried?

S.M. Freedman is also the author of The Faithful and Impact Winter. She studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and worked as a private investigator in Vancouver, where she lives with her husband and two children.

BOOKS

Blood Atonement (Dundurn, 2022) $22.99 9781459750241

The Day She Died (Dundurn, 2021) $18.99 978-1-45974-740-1

Impact Winter (Soaring Raven, 2016) 978-0997542707

The Faithful (Thomas & Mercer, 2015) 978-1503948044

[BCBW 2021]