This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing The Search Avon Inspire; Original edition (June 19, 2012) by Shelley Shepard Gray
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Since 2000, Shelley Sabga has sold over thirty novels to numerous publishers, including HarperCollins, Harlequin, Abingdon Press, and Avon Inspire. She has been interviewed by NPR, and her books have been highlighted in numerous publications, including USA Today and The Wall Street Journal.
Under the name Shelley Shepard Gray, Shelley writes Amish romances for HarperCollins’ inspirational line, Avon Inspire. Her recent novel, The Protector, the final book in her “Families of Honor” series, hit the New York Times List, and her previous novel in the same series, The Survivor, appeared on the USA Today bestseller list. Shelley has won the prestigious Holt Medallion for her books, Forgiven and Grace, and her novels have been chosen as Alternate Selections for the Doubleday/Literary Guild Book Club. Her first novel with Avon Inspire, Hidden, was an Inspirational Reader’s Choice finalist.
Before writing romances, Shelley lived in Texas and Colorado, where she taught school and earned both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in education. She now lives in southern Ohio and writes full time. Shelley is married, the mother of two children in college, and is an active member of her church. She serves on committees, volunteers in the church office, and currently leads a Bible study group, and she looks forward to the opportunity to continue to write novels that showcase her Christian ideals.
When she’s not writing, Shelley often attends conferences and reader retreats in order to give workshops and publicize her work. She’s attended RWA’s national conference six times, the ACFW conference and Romantic Times Magazine’s annual conference as well as traveled to New Jersey, Birmingham, and Tennessee to attend local conferences.
Check out Shelley’s Facebook Fan page
ABOUT THE BOOK
In the second book in her Secrets of Crittenden County series, New York Times bestselling author Shelley Shepard Gray delivers another page-turning romance set in Amish country
The serenity of the quiet Amish community of Crittenden, Kentucky is disrupted when Abby Anderson discovers the body of Perry Borntrager in an abandoned well. Perry had been missing for months. Everyone figured he had left the order during his rumspringa. As friends and family reel from this news, and are faced with the first death by mysterious circumstance to occur in their small town in over 20 years, a homicide detective arrives to help solve the crime
Before Perry disappeared, Frannie Eicher and Perry had been secretly courting. Now that it’s common knowledge that he was murdered, it’s up to Fannie to decide whether or not to tell everyone about the secrets he told her.
After much deliberation, she decides to tell Luke Reynolds, the visiting police officer, what she knows. At first, the two meet only on the context of discussing Perry’s death. Then, Luke begins to feel more and more at home, both with Frannie, and in Marion. The only problem is that he feels a romantic pull toward Frannie. Frannie feels that same attraction toward Luke, but is afraid to give her heart to him. After all, she doesn’t want to leave her faith.
As Luke uncovers more secrets about Perry and the case draws out, his time in Marion runs out. He has to decide whether to go back to his job with the Cincinnati Police Department…or stay in Marion.
If you would like to read the Prologue of The Search, go HERE.
My Thoughts
In a small Amish town where everyone knows everything about everyone, there is a mysterious death of an Amish boy that needs to be solved. Perry Borntrager has been found murdered and now the Sheriff Micah and Detective Luke are trying to find out what happened to him.
This book varies from the first, Missing, because it is focused on the characters that were in the background of the main suspects being questioned in book one. At the end of book one you find out that Frannie Eicher, the Inn keeper, had been seeing Perry when he was killed. Book two then takes on the further investigation to those that were not the main suspects questioned in book one. Book one is focused around detectives, Luke and Mose, and their questioning those closest to the murdered boy Perry Borntrager. Book two, The Search, is written more about the lives of the detective Luke and the other suspects in the county.
I had a brother that took the same road as Perry, a life of drugs and destruction. The author, Shelly Shephard Gray, does a wonderful job showing how when someone you love is on a path of self-destruction it not only destroys themselves, but those around them. She goes to great detail to describe how girlfriends, friends and family deal differently to the hurt from a loved one on a dark destructive path. The author shows the hurt and pain that is felt by the community. Each chapter begins with a quote from different members of the community and what their heart felt about Perry.
Woven into this mystery is a series of complex relationships that tell stories of friendships, betrayals, heart aches and questions of faith. I was amazed at how open the Amish characters in these books are to relationships outside of their church. This book is the second of a trilogy. The book ends with the reader unsure about solving the mystery of Perry’s death or the changing matters of each characters heart. I should have known that the mystery would not be solved, but instead the web around solving it was just woven bigger. After all you can’t have solved the mystery and then have a third book to read. I love these characters and cannot wait for book three to finally solve the mystery of who killed Perry Borntrager-Ahhh the suspense.
Terri
Review Crew
