Book One of the Memphis Crime Family Trilogy

Read First Chapter of Memphis by Holly May Cormier

Your paperback copy of Memphis will be signed by the author and personalized with your name. Each signed copy of Memphis will include a bookmark.

A woman on the run. A family with secrets. A past that refuses to let go.

In a worn-down suburb outside Nashville, the Freedman family rules through silence, alcohol, and violence. Memphis Monroe—a quiet, church-raised girl with a tender heart—never stood a chance against Johnny Freedman’s charm, reputation, and the pressure from her own troubled mother to escape the trailer park by marrying him.

Now, ten years later in the late 1970s, Memphis is exhausted, bruised by life and by Johnny’s fists, and barely holding on for the sake of her son, Michael. But everything changes the day Johnny goes too far. Memphis must decide: live as a lion for one day, or a sheep for the rest of her life.

With Michael beside her and Johnny’s prized Mustang Shelby beneath her, she flees Tennessee and begins a desperate cross-country journey toward Los Angeles—toward safety, truth, and the voice she buried long ago. But freedom isn’t simple. In California, Memphis uncovers secrets about her past, finds unexpected love, and realizes escape comes with consequences. When Johnny and her mother track her down, Memphis becomes trapped in a web of lies spun long before she ever knew the Freedman name—leading to a final, devastating showdown from which there is no return.

Memphis is a gripping, emotional story exploring the generational cycles of abuse, the legacy of addiction, the complexities of mother-daughter relationships, and the early battleground of women’s rights in America.

This Southern Thriller ebook is perfect for fans of:

• Domestic suspense

• Family-driven thrillers

• Southern gothic suspense

• Women’s fiction with emotional depth

• Psychological escape thrillers

• Stories about generational trauma, resilience, and survival