Before Audrey was the baker’s wife, she was the pastor’s wife. Then a scandalous lie cost her husband a pastoral career. Now the two work side-by-side running a bakery, serving coffee, and baking fresh bread. But the hurt still pulls at Audrey.
Driving early one morning to the bakery, Audrey’s car strikes something-or someone-at a fog-shrouded intersection. She finds a motor scooter belonging to a local teacher. Blood is everywhere, but there’s no trace of a body.
Both the scooter and the blood belong to detective Jack Mansfield’s wife, and he’s certain that Audrey is behind Julie’s disappearance.
But the case dead-ends and the detective spirals into madness. When he takes her family and some patrons hostage at the bakery, Audrey is left with a soul-damaged ex-con and a cynical teen to solve the mystery. And she’ll never manage that unless she taps into something she would rather leave behind-her excruciating ability to feel other’s pain.
Thomas Nelson; Original edition (October 4, 2011)
Keiki’s Review ~
What a lovely story full of forgiveness, empathy, and mystery! The Baker’s Wife by Erin Healy is an engaging read. The author takes exasperating life events like a Church scandal, abortion, estranged family relationships and adeptly weaves forgiveness, redemption, and reunion through a spiritually sensitive woman.
Many Christian women will identify with Audrey Bofinger because of the supernatural spiritual revelations she experiences as the story develops. These revelations are more than simple intuitions. They’re more like spiritual direction. They lead her throughout the story.
After leaving the ministry because of a trumped up scandal, Geoff and Audrey Bofinger open a bakery. On one fogged-filled morning on her way to work, Audrey and her son are involved in a car accident. There is no body, no victim to be found, but there is much blood. Finding the missing and obviously seriously injured person will pit Audrey’s family against the man who led the charge to force her husband out of the ministry.
Well developed characters bring much to the story. There is an convicted murderer, a wise and insightful Mexican baker, an agnostic and sometimes bitter mother, and an intelligent young co-ed who uses mathematics to help solve the mystery.
I read this book in two days. Why? Maybe because woven through the story was the symbolism of bread and what it means to Christianity, maybe because I love a good mystery, or maybe because I am becoming an Erin Healy fan. I recommend it as a great read.
