The Baker's Wife (book review)

The Baker's Wife

By Erin Healy

Paperback: 352 pages
Publisher: Thomas Nelson (October 4, 2011)
Language: English
List Price: $15.99

Book Description: If what doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger, why is Audrey growing weaker by the day? When her husband Geoff, a pastor, lost his job after a scandal rocked their congregation, Audrey's never lost faith. They decide to resurrect a failing bakery as a way to heal family wounds and restore their place in the community. Running late to the bakery one foggy morning, Audrey strikes a vehicle. Emerging from her car into the fog, she discovers she hit a motor scooter. But there’s no rider in sight. Just blood.


The absence of the driver is a mystery, especially to Sergeant Jack Mansfield, the detective and church member responsible for firing Geoff from his pulpit. The scooter belongs to Jack’s wife, Julie, a teacher at the local high school, who has vanished…like morning fog.


Though there is no evidence to support Jack’s growing suspicion that Audrey and Geoff were involved in Julie’s disappearance, the detective is convinced of their guilt. When he takes the tiny bakery and its patron’s hostage, Audrey must unravel the secret of Julie’s disappearance and her own mysterious suffering before Jack hits his breaking point.

My take: This is the first book I've read in electronic form for a review (I downloaded it to my Nook).  I have to tell you, while I love the feel and look of a "real book," I do enjoy the convenience of having several books at my disposal at once with the Nook.  Anyway, I asked to review "The Baker's Wife" because it appeared to be a book right up my alley - combining my twin reading interests of mystery and Christian fiction.  The book did not disappoint - with just the right amount of both to keep me interested.  The main character is Audrey - and she may be a "Baker's Wife" when the story opens but she was a "Pastor's Wife."  For reasons that are revealed slowly as you read, she and her husband left the ministry (not through choice) and opened a bakery.  The man that forced them out is Jack and he is the embodiment of all that I think is wrong with Christianity today - a hard liner who believes in strict justice - his God is cruel and judgmental.  And these beliefs warped him to the point of where he lost touch with reality.  At that point, it's up to Audrey, with her gift of the Spirit to feel what others are feeling, to figure out the mystery of where Jack's wife Julie really is.  From start to finish, I loved this book.  I stayed up late, I read at stoplights, I devoured the book.  Five stars.

This review was sponsored by Book Sneeze (Thomas Nelson) who provided the book (in electronic form) for review. I was not compensated in any way except for the complimentary book.  My opinions are my own.

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