The Palms: A novel

68 year-old Ronnie Wells has recently been paroled for a murder he committed 36 years ago. He lives in a run-down trailer park outside Pensacola, Florida. Daily life for Ronnie changes when he befriends Mary, the 7 year-old girl who lives next door with her mother, Clara, a drug-addicted prostitute. In Mary, Ronnie finds the daughter he never got to raise. Clara is reluctant to the friendship at first but soon realizes Ronnie is the only man she’s ever known who didn’t want to use her. To escape Joe, Clara’s violent pimp, Clara and Mary move in with Ronnie. With Ronnie’s help, Clara gets clean, but her past still haunts her. Her relapse kicks off the series of events that lead Joe to kidnap Mary, putting her in the hands of human traffickers. Ronnie must decide if he will return to his old, violent ways to save Mary.