To save her husband and son, Audrey Bofinger must rescue her enemy.
The Bofinger family has lost their church ministry in a scandal exposed by Officer Jack Mansfield. Hoping to heal and to restore their reputation, Audrey, Geoff, and their son Ed take over a failing bakery in the small community.
Driving to the bakery one morning, blinded by fog, Audrey hits a motor scooter owned by Jack’s wife, Julie. The mangled scooter is crushed and bloody. But Julie is nowhere to be found. Her disappearance coincides with a sudden illness that nearly cripples Audrey.
Jack believes the Bofingers have hurt Julie to take revenge on him, but the evidence dries up and her trail goes cold. At a breaking point, Jack takes the tiny bakery and its patrons hostage, issuing only one demand: Audrey has six hours to return Julie to him, or lose Geoff and Ed forever.
With only an excruciating and intuitive gift, an ex-con, and Julie’s estranged daughter to help search for clues, Audrey starts the search of her life for a woman who has vanished like the fog.
Erin Healy is an award-winning fiction editor who has worked with talented novelists such as James Scott Bell, Melody Carlson, Colleen Coble, Brandilyn Collins, Traci DePree, L. B. Graham, Rene Gutteridge, Michelle McKinney Hammond, Robin Lee Hatcher, Denise Hildreth, Denise Hunter, Randy Ingermanson, Jane Kirkpatrick,Bryan Litfin, Frank Peretti,Lisa Samson, Randy Singer, Robert Whitlow, and many others.
She began working with Ted Dekker in 2002 and edited twelve of his heart-pounding storiesbefore their collaboration on Kiss, the first novel to seat her on “the other side of the desk.”
Erin is the owner of WordWright Editorial Services, a consulting firm specializing in fiction book development. She is a member of the American Christian Fiction Writers and the Academy of Christian Editors. She lives with her family in Colorado.
My Impressions:
Stoop down and reach out to those who are oppressed. Share their burdens, and so complete Christ’s law. Galatians 6:2 (The Message)
When I started reading Erin Healy’s novel, The Baker’s Wife, I expected a suspense novel about a missing woman and the woman blamed for her disappearance. What I got was so much more. The Baker’s Wife is one of the best books I have had the pleasure to read this year.
Audrey is the wife of a former pastor now turned baker due to a scandal in his church. Baking was a restful activity in their former lives, and became a way to reach out to people. Now Audrey and her husband bake for a living, yet the baking still is more about bread. Audrey has a connection with those she is led to give her bread to. A connection so deep, she feels their pain. However, even before she and her husband left the ministry, Audrey pulled back from the connections she had with those in need. The pain was too great. Now Audrey is faced with another crisis. She is involved in an accident that leaves a crushed motor bike and lots of blood, but no body. And the stakes get higher as the husband of the missing woman puts Audrey’s family under the microscope in connection with her disappearance.
Healy has written a well-crafted novel. The characters are complex, the setting compliments the story line and the themes are thought-provoking. The reader is faced with two opposite faces of God — mercy and justice — and the underlying motive that brings the two together — love. And God’s love is taken a step further when Audrey must take part in God’s work, by bearing for other’s burdens in a way that brings about emotional and physical pain. If you like a suspense-filled book, you should read The Baker’s Wife. If you want to be challenged about what it looks like to love, you definitely need to read The Baker’s Wife.
To read what other reviewers have to say about The Baker’s Wife, click HERE.
To celebrate the publication of The Bake’s Wife, Erin Healy is having a great FB party and giveaway. For more information, click HERE.
Highly Recommended.
(I received a copy of The Baker’s Wife from LitFuse in return for a review. The opinions expressed are mine alone.)
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