Prodigal: A Novel

It’s the Fourth of July, 2000. In a small Southern town, fireworks light the sky above the City Park, while down the street, a smaller flash of light changes everything for 19-year-old Connor Burdette. He has just lost the girl he loves.

Now, buying beer at the Back Home Market, he becomes an accomplice to a shooting. Out of desperation, he runs. It will take ten years and a death to bring him back.

But it’s so hard to come home. The town still blames him for his part in the convenience store shooting. His wealthy grandmother’s will, leaving her fortune to Connor, only causes tension in the family. The Burdettes are caught in the fierce push and pull of loyalties and deception. And like the gun that washes up in a rainstorm, family secrets won’t stay buried.

Nikki, who is married to Connor’s brother, Russ, has kept the most powerful secret of all. Connor has to face his past, his cowardice at the convenience store, and his betrayal of his brother.

At the Back Home Market, where it all began, Connor is given one last chance to redeem himself, to be forgiven, and to forgive himself.

Prodigalis a modern-day retelling of an age-old story, unique in the context of a Southern family. Told by multiple narrators, Prodigal is about forgiveness, redemption, and the sacrifice that love demands.

Phyllis Gobbell writes a little bit of everything—mysteries, true crimes, short stories, creative nonfiction, and fiction. Her award-winning stories have appeared in 2 Bridges Review, Bellevue Review, Zone 3, Red Mud Review, Coastal Shelf, Tetrahedra, and HomeWorks. She received Tennessee’s Individual Artist Award for Literature.

Treachery in Tuscany, the third book in her Jordan Mayfair Mystery Series, won a Silver Falchion Award for Best Cozy Mystery.