Rachael Ramas grew up in Novi. Her debut novel, "Objects in Lakes," sold 55 copies in under an hour at the Northville Barnes & Noble on Thursday, July 16, then blew through 60 more at the Detroit Festival of Books on Sunday, July 19, C&G Newspapers reported.
The initial print run of 2,000 copies sold out within three weeks of the book's release, according to publicist Lia LoBello Reynolds of DC Communications. The hardcover is now back-ordered.
Barnes & Noble had to pull those 55 copies from another store because the book was already unavailable through normal channels. Ramas said she brought only 60 copies to the Detroit Festival of Books, which ran from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and sold out before noon.
Joni McLellan, a Novi resident, drove to the Northville signing after reading about it in the Novi Note. She left empty-handed that day but tracked Ramas down at the Detroit festival three days later and got her copy.
"I just love books, and I love lakes. I love to read, and just reading your excerpt about it, I thought, 'I want to come,'" McLellan told C&G Newspapers.
Lisa Hannawa and her son Hathem, of Farmington Hills, brought copies they had purchased online to the Northville signing after hearing about the book in an online thriller group. Ramas's father, Brian Rogg, told C&G Newspapers in a July 1 interview that he read it in about four sittings and called it a page-turner.
A Michigan love letter
Ramas, who now lives in Florida, set the thriller primarily in Bloomfield Township, with references to Commerce Township, Lake Sherwood, and Michigan's Upper Peninsula. The plot follows a woman named Olive whose four-year-old daughter drowns in Duck Lake on the Fourth of July. Seven years later, another body surfaces, and Olive begins questioning whether her daughter's death was truly an accident.
Published under Simon & Schuster's Simon Maverick imprint, the book is described by its publisher as "a tense and atmospheric Midwestern domestic suspense."
Ramas suffers from autoimmune disorders that caused her to lose her hearing and said she dreamed up the story during a massage while mourning the healthier person she once was.
"This is like my love letter to Michigan," Ramas said in the July 1 C&G interview, ahead of her Tuesday, June 23, signing at Literati bookstore in Ann Arbor. "I don't think you realize how special Michigan is, or maybe even the place you grow up in, until you move away."
What's next
An audiobook edition narrated by Megan Tusing and Rob Brinkmann was released Tuesday, July 21, through Simon Maverick. No additional local signing dates have been announced, but readers unable to find a hardcover can access the audiobook now through Simon & Schuster.
