While The Devil Dances

by Robert Ramsey

Laura Williams, age 18, meets Jack Farris, 24, on the weekend following her high school graduation, is swept off her feet, and marries him 106 days later. During courtship he has been attentive and gentle, but Laura is shocked when he slaps her on her honeymoon and becomes increasingly abusive. He complains about her friends and family until he gradually drives a wedge between them, refuses to let her work, and convinces her to relocate into an older model, isolated mobile home in the countryside outside town. His winning personality makes him extremely likeable to everyone, even Laura’s parents, making her circumstances even more difficult. Laura’s church teaches that adultery is the only grounds for a Biblical divorce and Jack has not been unfaithful, but Beth, her Vanderbilt educated older sister, constantly urges her to divorce Jack anyway, leave town, and start a new life. But can this victim of abuse gather the strength to defy both her parents and her church?

432 pages, Paperback

First published February 6, 2009