All Saved Great and Small

Book excerpt: Like Barbara Kingsolver’s brilliant Demon Copperhead, a Pulitzer Prize winner, All Saved Great and Small transports the reader deep into the heart of rugged Appalachia, a part of the country not understood by most people. Lawlessness and poverty plague the region. A star athlete, Finn Boone struggles to rise above his bootlegging father and his father’s murderous behavior. A person of Melungeon descent, Grace Goins fights against racism and prejudice. When their teenage love is forbidden, they go their separate ways in life. Over forty years later, FBI Special Agent Finn Boone, a reluctant preacher, and Dr. Grace Goins, a Presbyterian theologian and an expert on religious cults for the Department of Homeland Security, find themselves on the same team trying to stop a brilliant, rogue scientist who is willing to destroy human civilization to save the planet from the climate crisis. How many must die? Will the scientist be found before he unleashes a terrible AI weapon to force world governments into action? Members of the team are shocked when they discover the identity of the scientist who claims to be a descendant of Mary, mother of Jesus, and has the DNA evidence to prove it.