I have to confess. While waiting for the release of LIFE IN DEFIANCE, I kept imagining different ends to Mary DeMuth’ s Defiance Texas Trilogy by casting the town’s characters in the role of the Daisy Chance’s killer. I played this character game to avoid facing the the real question; will any sense come from sweet Daisy’s death?
In LIFE IN DEFIANCE, Mary returns her readers to Defiance, Texas for the trilogy’s conclusion. While Defiance is a place where we have all passed through, we would never intentionally stop at the Hap and Ouisie Pepper’s house. If we were walking on the Pepper’s street, we would walk by on the other side. If we were driving in the neighborhood, we might make an extra block to avoid their street. It is a house full of more than its share of secrets.
Mary opens the Pepper’s front door for us, places Ouisie’s size nine shoes on our feet and walks us into her tormented life of quilt and confusion as she seeks the answers to the questions that have been haunting her and the rest of the town.
As the cost of Daisy Chance’s death changes everyone in town, Life in Defiance is an appropriate end to the Defiance Texas Trilogy. It is a beautiful story of how an individual’s redemption comes through acts of community. For Mary’s readers, the real mysteries will be discovering who in town will be redeemed and who will be lost.
I received a free review copy of Thin Places from Zondervan. Nevertheless, I do not write positive reviews unless I believe in the what I am endorsing. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."