The Savage, Noble Death of Babs Dionne by Ron Currie

The Savage, Noble Death of Babs Dionne

Ron Currie, Ron Currie Jr.

Penguin Publishing Group · Paperback · February 24, 2026

Named a Best Book of the Year by Vulture, BookPage, Publishers Weekly, and Real Simple • A WSJ Best Mystery Book of 2025 • A 2025 NPR Book We Love "Terrific in-your-face crime story, featuring the unlikeliest drug family you've ever met.

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Who it’s for
Readers who enjoy crime sagas with strong female leads
Themes
crime, family loyalty, vengeance
Pacing
Fast

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About this book

Named a Best Book of the Year by Vulture, BookPage, Publishers Weekly, and Real Simple • A WSJ Best Mystery Book of 2025 • A 2025 NPR Book We Love "Terrific in-your-face crime story, featuring the unlikeliest drug family you've ever met.

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It's like the second coming of Elmore Leonard." —Stephen King “Darkly funny, shocking, and unblinking, The Savage, Noble Death of Babs Dionne is a tour de force with a palpable rendering of place and time and unforgettable characters.” —C.J. Box, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Battle Mountain Your ancestors breathe through you. Sometimes, they call for vengeance. Babs Dionne, proud Franco-American, doting grandmother, and vicious crime matriarch, rules her small town of Waterville, Maine, with an iron fist. She controls the flow of drugs into Little Canada with the help of her loyal lieutenants, girlfriends since they were teenagers, and her eldest daughter, Lori, a Marine vet struggling with addiction. When a drug kingpin discovers that his numbers are down in the upper northeast, he sends a malevolent force, known only as The Man, to investigate. At the same time, Babs's youngest daughter, Sis, has gone missing, which doesn't seem at all like a coincidence. In twenty-four hours, Sis will be found dead, and the whole town will seek shelter from Babs’s wrath. The Savage, Noble Death of Babs Dionne is a crime saga like no other, with a ferocious matriarch at its bruised, beating heart. With sharp wit and profound empathy, award-winning author Ron Currie, delivers an unforgettable novel exploring love, retribution, and the ancestral roots that both nurture and trap us.

Who it’s for

  • Readers who enjoy crime sagas with strong female leads
  • Fans of darkly funny and shocking crime stories

Where it sits

Crime Fiction39%
Hard-Boiled Mystery33%
Women's Fiction24%

Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.

Publisher categories

  • Crime Fiction
  • Women's Fiction
Authors
Ron Currie, Ron Currie Jr.
Publisher
Penguin Publishing Group
Published
February 24, 2026
Format
Paperback
Theme
crime · family loyalty · vengeance
Reading lane
Crime Fiction