Book review: 'The Savage, Noble Death of Babs Dionne' is action-packed crime tale & heartfelt family drama

"The Babs of Ron Currie's unwieldly titled "The Savage, Noble Death of Babs Dionne" is a lesson in contrasts - a fiercely loving, protective mother who is the ruthless head of a crime syndicate in small, economically depressed Waterville, Maine. She regularly gets together for coffee and chats with a group of women who've been her friends since high school. They also are "lieutenants" in her vast criminal operation."

"Babs has no illusions about her children. She knows her daughters are burdened with emotional baggage. Her oldest, Lori, a Marine veteran, has had several near-fatal overdoses and struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder. Lori is now charged with finding her missing younger sister, Sis, whose husband, Bruce, finds out how far Babs' wrath can go after he gives her grandson a black eye."

"Currie balances the problems in her home life with the troubles in her business. One of her lieutenants is challenging her authority. A regional drug kingpin blames the decrease in his business on Babs so he sends the violent "The Man" to investigate. Grief, guilt and revenge spiral through the matriarch's decisions. As brutal as Babs can be, Currie keeps the reader firmly on her side."

"As Currie writes, people could say the area "had seen better days, except it never really had." In the past, writes Currie, "people had more trouble than money," and that never seems to have changed. "The Savage, Noble Death of Babs Dionne " is the first of a planned trilogy that should follow a theme Currie sets early in the novel: that generations are a chain, "one link leading to and binding the next.""

Babs Dionne leads a vast criminal operation in economically depressed Waterville, Maine while fiercely protecting her family. She convenes with longtime friends who serve as lieutenants in her syndicate. Her eldest daughter, Lori, a Marine veteran with PTSD and near-fatal overdoses, is tasked with finding missing sister Sis after a family incident provokes Babs' wrath. A lieutenant challenges Babs' authority and a regional drug kingpin sends a violent investigator called "The Man." Grief, guilt, and revenge propel the matriarch's choices, and the setting and generational ties shape characters' lives and motivations.

Read at Sun Sentinel