Lost Daughters

Everyone from Louisiana to Florida knows Mama Ruby—a small-town girl who became one of the South’s most notorious and volatile women. Now New York Times bestselling author Mary Monroe reveals how the indomitable heroine of her acclaimed classic The Upper Room continues to vex the family she’s left behind.



Mama Ruby has died and Maureen Montgomery is finally taking charge of her own life. With her beautiful teenage daughter, Loretta, by her side, she returns to Florida and settles into a routine any other woman would consider bland. But for Maureen and her brother, Virgil, after Mama Ruby’s hair-trigger temper and murderous ways, bland is good. Yet Loretta has other ideas . . . 

Set on becoming rich and famous, Loretta convinces Maureen to let her start a modeling career with the help of a Miami photographer. But even as they move in promising new directions, they can’t escape Mama Ruby—including Virgil, who’s concealed one of her most shocking acts for most of his life. To make a future that’s truly hers, Maureen will have to take on a bit of Mama Ruby’s strength, forge new bonds—and face down the past.

Mary Monroe is the award-winning and New York Times bestselling author of twenty-five novels and six novellas. She is a three-time AALBC bestseller and winner of the AAMBC Maya Angelou Lifetime Achievement Award, the PEN/Oakland Josephine Miles Award, and the J. California Cooper Memorial Award. The daughter of Alabama sharecroppers, she taught herself how to write before going on to become the first and only member of her family to finish high school. She lives in Oakland, California, and loves to hear from her readers via e-mail at Authorauthor5409@aol.com. Visit Mary’s website at MaryMonroe.org.