Deborah Goodrich Royce
When a severed hand washes ashore in the wealthy enclave of Palm Beach, Florida, the lives of two women—a lonely writer obsessed with the unsolved murder of her mother’s best friend, and a panicked wife whose husband has disappeared with their children—collide as the world shutters in the pandemic lockdown of 2020.
A young woman’s life seems perfect until her family goes missing. A writer lives alone with her dog and collects arcane murder statistics. What each of them stands to lose as they sneak around the do-not-enter tape blocking Reef Road beach is exposed by the steady tightening of the cincture encircling them.
In a nod to the true crime that inspired it, Deborah Goodrich Royce’s Reef Road probes unhealed generational scars in a wrenching and original work of fiction. It is both stunning and sexy, like a bystander surprised by a curtain left open, you won’t be able to look away.
Deborah Goodrich Royce’s thrillers examine puzzles of identity. Reef Road hit Publishers Weekly’s Bestseller list, Good Morning America’s Top 15 list, and was an Indie Next pick by the American Bookseller’s Association for January 2023. Ruby Falls won the Zibby Award for Best Plot Twist in 2021 and Finding Mrs. Ford was hailed by Forbes, Book Riot, and Good Morning America’s “best of” lists in 2019 .
Deborah began as an actress on All My Children and in multiple films, before transitioning to the role of story 
editor at Miramax Films, developing Emma and early versions of Chicago and A Wrinkle in Time.
With her husband, Chuck, Deborah restored the Avon Theatre, Ocean House Hotel, Deer Mountain Inn, United Theatre, Savoy Bookstore, and numerous Main Street revitalization projects in Rhode Island and the Catskills.
She serves on the governing and/or advisory boards of the American Film Institute, Avon Theatre, Greenwich International Film Festival, New York Botanical Garden, Greenwich Historical Society, the Preservation Society of Newport, the Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach, and the PRASAD Project.
The Ocean House Author Series—a salon style conversation that Deborah created and moderates in Watch Hill, RI—has grown exponentially in the three years since its inception. This year, Deborah will welcome two dozen writers ranging from Chris Bohjalian to Katie Couric. Past authors have included Zain Asher, Emma Straub, Annabel Monaghan, Zibby Owens, and many more.
Deborah holds a bachelor’s degree in modern foreign languages and an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Lake Erie College.
Deborah Goodrich Royce will be the featured guest in the USCB Lunch with Authors series on Tuesday, April 18th, at the Belfair Clubhouse, 200 Belfair Oaks Blvd, Bluffton. The event starts at noon. For more information and tickets, visit www.uscbcenterforthearts.com
