Daisy Chain

When Jed Pepper’s best friend Daisy goes missing, the insecurities that stem from Jed’s family’s secrets come raging to the surface. What kinds of secrets does a Texas pastor’s family hold? You’d be surprised. 

And that is the premise for Mary DeMuth’s newest novel, Daisy Chain. It is the first in the Defiance, Texas Trilogy and, in Mary’s words, is a “long answer to a conversation with a friend” concerning that friend’s family of origin. Hearing the story of a father touted as an upstanding Christian man in the community but who spun into physically violent and abusive rages behind closed doors sparked Mary’s compassion for that family and her desire to explore the issues inherent in such a situation. Her ultimate goal is for others to find freedom in Christ, as she has experienced as well. In one effort to facilitate this freedom, Mary has also launched a companion blog where people can anonymously post their family secrets in order to loose their hold by telling them, by keeping them completely secret no longer. It is becoming a community of encouragement and prayer. And that, too, comes back to Jed and Daisy’s story. 

Throughout the pages of Daisy Chain, help is afforded Jed by two characters who help him process both his feelings and his faith. They point him toward the redemption that only the Lord can provide in his present circumstances and past failings. Does that make you want to know more? Well Daisy Chain is a complex story of suspense and mystery and coming of age that is painful and wonderful all at the same time. 

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