When Katie (A.K.A. Agatha) follows her counselor's advice and calls home after being missing for two years, she has idea of the struggles that will follow as she reconnects with her family. Her first challenge is to convince her friend Kirk in Nashville that she has romantic interest in him, a task that proves more difficult and dangerous than she could ever have imagined. Once back in Eastern Kentucky with her family, regaining their trust depends on being able to dig into her past and find out why she would have ever left her husband and two precious children. The one person who holds the key to her past, her Aunt Esther, seems reluctant to talk. However, when Esther finally gains the courage to tell Katie the shocking facts about her early childhood trauma, her story allows the family to begin the long healing process.
Merrill J. Davies has been writing and publishing most of her life. Beginning in high school in Southeastern Kentucky as feature editor of The Hazel Nut, and continuing throughout her thirty-one years of teaching high school English, she has always enjoyed writing and teaching writing. When she retired from teaching in 2003, she began to focus more on her efforts to write fiction. The Welsh Harp, her first novel, was published in 2012. The Truth About Katie is her second novel. In addition to writing, Merrill is active in Toastmasters, The Georgia Council of Teachers of English, the National Council of Teachers of English, and her church. She also enjoys spending time with her husband and two daughters and their families, including six grandchildren. Merrill and her husband Bill live in Rome, Georgia.