You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby!
You know, I think this is the one phrase that describes Christian entertainment in the mid- to late 90s through today.
Prior to the abovementioned time, if you wanted Christian entertainment (books, movies, music, etc.) you were doomed to mediocre choices–at best. Gradually the music caught up with the times, as did the books–which were a bit above the level of the music already. Movies still have a bit of catching up to do, but they’re getting there.
I’ve noticed that the majority of Christian fiction has a tendency to be romantic. It’s not that I don’t like romance, but I also like a good action/adventure novel, a good drama, a good thriller... You get the picture. When I can find a book that combines a good romance with a more dramatic side it’s all that much better.
I was surprised, very pleasantly, when a book I was given as part of judging for a book contest turned out to be a wonderful, engrossing Christian romance/drama/mystery/thriller!
Characters/Story
Bree Nichols
Bree has had a really tough year. It was just last year that she lost her husband and sun in a plane crash, her husband piloting their small plane. What’s worse is that the plane has never been recovered and her sister-in-law has been hounding her to find the wreckage. Add to the top of that the guilt Bree feels (she and her husband argued about a suspected infidelity just before he took off) and you have a very emotionally damaged woman.
Bree’s a beautiful woman, but she’s just not ready to date yet–not for a lack of interested men.
Bree is also fairly well known as a ‘Search and Rescue’(SAR) worker with her partner Samson–a ‘Heniz 57' dog with an incredible nose.
Bree’s life gets turned upside down when she first has to find the missing children of a friend and later when she has to find the missing wife of another friend. The first story turns out with a happy ending, but the second is much more sinister. Not only do they find the woman’s body at the bottom of a cliff, but Bree knows in her gut that this was no accident and that the woman was murdered. There’s a murderer on the loose in her town.
Kade Matthews
Kade is a ranger with a lot of worries of his own. When Bree turns up at the hunt for the missing kids he’s annoyed, he didn’t think SAR even needed to be called. He gives her explicit instructions which she promptly ignores!
Kade didn’t really want to stick around Rock Harbor, in the U.P. (Michigan’s Upper Peninsula), but he promised his dying mother that he’d stay there and raise his teenage sister there so she could stay in the same school. For a young man, raising a teenager is a lot of hassle. Is it worth it?
Naomi Heinonen
Naomi is Bree’s best friend. She lives with her mother in the bed & breakfast that they run, which neighbors on Bree’s home (a renovated lighthouse). Naomi is a little bit weak-willed, especially where her mother is concerned.
Naomi harbors a crush on Donovan, the father of the two children she helped to rescue, who’s been lonely since his wife left him. For that matter, Naomi’s had a crush on him since her high school days.
Mason and Hilary Kaleva
Hilary is Bree’s sister-in-law, brother to Bree’s late husband, and the mayor of Rock Harbor. She’s nearly obsessed with wanting Bree to find the wreckage so that they can have a proper burial for her brother and nephew. Hillary also has some issues that stem from the inability to have a child that she so desperately wants.
Mason is the sheriff of Rock Harbor, stuck in the middle of a murder investigation that is totally out of his league. Stuff like that just doesn’t happen in Rock Harbor, so he’s ill-equipped to deal with it. He’s basically a nice guy though, and tries to do his best and do what’s right.
Rachel
Rachel was forced into hiding when she was unjustly accused of killing patients in her nursing home. In the backwoods of Michigan’s U.P. she sees things she shouldn’t see and everyone in town wants to find ‘the witch of the woods.’
Timmy and Emily O’Reilly
Lost in the woods after Emily leaves her group in hunt of a raccoon she spotted earlier, the O’Reilly kids are in trouble. Timmy is an insulin-dependant diabetic and he’s past due for his shot. In the woods they find a scary looking woman, whom they refer to as the ‘witch of the woods.’ Nobody believes them about this woman–at first.
My Thoughts
I loved the way “Without a Trace” blended together a plethora of characters, keeping you fully engaged at all times. Most books have slow times where you really don’t pay that much attention, but if you don’t pay attention at all times, you’ll lose the flow of this story quickly.
I think that the reason author Colleen Coble used so many characters was that “Without a Trace” is the first book in the Rock Harbor series. You have to have multiple characters if you want to support multiple books, and this book gives you good background on the characters like few books can. Often a ‘first’ book in a series tries to do too much at once, but that’s not true of “Without a Trace.”
There are few writers who can write mysteries well. As a general rule, I can spot the ending halfway through the book. Sometimes, even sooner than halfway. I figured out part of the ‘mystery’ of “Without a Trace” rather quickly, but the author intended that. The ‘grand finale’ however, took my completely by surprise! I didn’t see this one coming.
Recommendation
I give “Without a Trace” by Colleen Coble a full and emphatically high recommendation!
The Rock Harbor Series
Without a Trace
Beyond a Doubt
Into the Deep
Recommended:
