The Thriller From This Rhode Island Author Is A Terrific Wintertime Read

Looking for an exciting read that will keep you wondering what’s next? Check out today’s special guest blogger’s review of Ruby Falls written by local Rhode Island author Deborah Goodrich.

Since I was a kid, I have been a fan of Alfred Hitchcock’s high wire suspense thrillers.

My other interests tended towards the JFK and Cuba conspiracy theories…more mystery and suspense.

So it was a pleasant surprise, when I started reading Deborah Goodrich’s novel Ruby Falls, to find that the story in many ways is a homage to both Hitchcock and populist (and entertaining) conspiracy theories from the 60’s.

For example, Ruby Falls is reminiscent of two Hitchcock classics: Rebecca in 1940 and Suspicion in 1941.

Both movies have 95% plus ratings on Rotten Tomatoes as well as numerous Oscar nods and casts made up of brilliant actors (Laurence Olivier, Cary Grant, Joan Fontaine and Judith Anderson to name a few).

Similar to the most spell binding Hitchcock stories, Ruby Falls is suspenseful, disturbing, and impossible to put down once you start reading.

Ruby is a six year old girl who is abandoned by her father in a cold, dark cave frequented by tourists in Ruby Falls, Tennessee. 

As an adult, Ruby is transformed into a successful soap opera actress (Eleanor Russell) but due to some strange circumstances has to exit the show.

Cut to Ruby/Eleanor after she’s left the show and has a “fairy tale” romance on vacation in Italy with the dashing and very British Orlando (shades of Cary Grant and Laurence Olivier), resulting in a spontaneous wedding in an idyllic Italian setting.

As the story unfolds the newlyweds travel to Los Angeles, buying  a beautiful cottage, allowing Ruby/Eleanor to resume her acting career in a feature film…which is where “the plot thickens” and unfolds in an unraveling Hitchcock-esque type of way.

Is Orlando the romantic hero rescuing Eleanor (aka Ruby) from the harrowing traumas of her childhood abandonment?

Or is Orlando a sinister opportunist (maybe murderer) preying on Eleanor’s vulnerability and insecurity!?

Orlando reminds me of the character played by Cary Grant as the husband to Joan Fontaine in Hitchcock’s Suspicion.

The studio tested the original ending of the movie in which Cary Grant murders his rich wife Joan Fontaine to steal all her money.

The audience that was part of the test resoundingly rejected the ending and Hitchcock was forced to shoot an alternative with Cary Grant playing the good husband, resulting in big box office success. (Even without knowing the backstory, you still have to wonder about the motives of the Cary Grant character.)

Deborah Goodrich has written a masterful story that captures a similar sense of mystery, ambiguity and suspense: Who are the villains? Who are the heroes? Where is the truth? Who is sane? Who is insane?

A real page turner!

I recommend you read Ruby Falls and enjoy a story that entertains you with all the possible answers to these questions.

My suggestion to Deborah is to write the Ruby Falls screenplay and find a modern day Alfred Hitchcock to direct it.