Cradle To Grave

Winner of the Indie B.R.A.G. Medallion | Semifinalist, 2026 BookLife Fiction Prize
In the summer of 2005, two little girls in New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward share an inseparable friendship. Katie and Jo-Jo are neighbors, confidantes, and each other's safe place in a world that is about to change forever.
When Hurricane Katrina tears through New Orleans, it leaves more than devastation in its wake. The girls are separated, and the paths their lives take could not be more different. For Jo-Jo, the years that follow are marked by unimaginable loss, betrayal, and trauma. Childhood innocence gives way to something far darker.
Twenty years later, a calculating serial killer stalks the streets of New Orleans.
Homicide Detective Paget Ellington is determined to stop the murders, but as the body count rises, disturbing connections emerge between the victims and a past that refuses to stay buried. The closer Paget comes to the truth, the more personal—and dangerous—the investigation becomes.
Told through alternating timelines and perspectives, Cradle to Grave is a haunting psychological thriller that explores the devastating consequences of childhood trauma, the fragile boundaries between victim and perpetrator, and the choices that shape who we become.

From award-winning author Angela McClintock comes a gripping, emotionally layered story of friendship, survival, obsession, and revenge that challenges readers to confront an unsettling question:
What makes a killer? Nature or Nurture.