A Publishers Weekly Bestseller When a severed hand washes ashore in the wealthy enclave of Palm Beach, Florida, the lives of two women-a lonely writer obsessed with the unsolved murder of her mother's best friend and a panicked wife whose husband has disappeared with their children-collide as the world shutters in the pandemic lockdown of 2020.
Deborah Goodrich Royce Books
This debut novelist brings a wealth of experience from the film industry and a profound understanding of narrative artistry. Her writing is deeply informed by a life lived between cinema and literature, offering readers compelling stories. Previous work in Hollywood and as a story editor for Miramax Films provided a unique perspective on crafting impactful narratives. This novel represents a culmination of her creative journey, promising readers a captivating literary experience.


Ruby Falls
- 272 pages
- 10 hours of reading
Named one of the most riveting books of Spring 2021 by Veranda Magazine! Named one of 30 books to read in May 2021 by Zibby Owens for Good Morning America! Named one of the best books for Mother's Day by Zibby Owens for The Washington Post! Like the chilling psychological thriller The Silent Patient, Deborah Goodrich Royce’s Ruby Falls is a nail-biting tale of a fragile young actress, the new husband she barely knows, and her growing suspicion that the secrets he harbors may eclipse her own. On a brilliantly sunny July day, six-year-old Ruby is abandoned by her father in the suffocating dark of a Tennessee cave. Twenty years later, transformed into soap opera star Eleanor Russell, she is fired under dubious circumstances. Fleeing to Europe, she marries a glamorous stranger named Orlando Montague and keeps her past closely hidden. Together, Eleanor and Orlando start afresh in LA. Setting up house in a storybook cottage in the Hollywood Hills, Eleanor is cast in a dream role—the lead in a remake of Rebecca. As she immerses herself in that eerie gothic tale, Orlando’s personality changes, ghosts of her past re-emerge, and Eleanor fears she is not the only person in her marriage with a secret. In this thrilling and twisty homage to Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca, the story ricochets through the streets of Los Angeles, a dangerous marriage to an exotic stranger, and the mind of a young woman whose past may not release her.