Book excerpt: The place: Austin, Texas. The date: April 6, 1983. The heroine of Blood on the Threshold, Mirabelle Garrett, was the director of economic development for a U.S.–Mexico border town in the southwest corner of the state. Mirabelle arrived in the capital city to speak to the state legislature about her initiatives to boost its economy while the peso was in free fall, but she never got to deliver that speech. Violence—savage, bloody, and full of rage—intervened. In hair-raising detail, Mirabelle tells the story of how she was stabbed in the back—an incredible twelve times—while in her downtown Austin hotel room. Her assailant was imprisoned for thirty years, during which Mirabelle traveled and consulted with palm readers, spiritual advisers, and Christian leaders in an attempt to make sense of the assault and her childhood dreams that foretold it. Throughout her long journey to healing and forgiveness, Mirabelle’s compassionate zeal to help other victims of violence by championing laws to protect them from their predators was passionate and persistent.