Faith Bass Darling’s Last Garage Sale

When Faith Bass Darling hears the voice of God telling her to sell all her possessions because she will die that night, the reclusive heiress drags everything onto the lawn for a garage sale. Her sanity is questionable, but her neighbors’ opportunism is not. Local antiques dealer Bobbie Blankenship hears about the goings on and calls Faith’s estranged daughter, Claudia Jean, to alert her to her mother’s strange behavior. Claudia reluctantly returns home and reconnects with deputy sheriff John Jasper Johnson, who tries to help her end the sale and deal with the mother she hasn’t seen in 20 years. Faith reflects on her life and her values, from her troubling marriage to Claude, a violent man who married her for her money, to her falling out with Claudia Jean, and the death of her son, Mike, in an accident that changed John Jasper’s life. Rutledge, a fifth-generation Texan, paints a colorful portrait of a larger than life Texas matron, but her debut offers nothing new on the story’s well-trod themes of Southern racism, old money, and materialism. (May)