FINDING SARAH

Author: Terry Odell ISBN: 9781419907821 2/2007 SUSPENSE Publisher: CERRIDWEN PRESS

Being robbed at gunpoint wasn't part of Sarah Tucker's business plan. Neither was falling in love with the detective who arrived to solve the case. All Sarah wants is success for her gift boutique, the one she and her husband created. Now, she's living a hand-to-mouth existence. Her husband died a year earlier in a car accident - an accident that was ruled suicide, denying her his life insurance money. Burdened by guilt that she was somehow to blame for his death, Sarah faces one business setback after another. She's determined to succeed on her own, fending off a meddling sister-in-law as well as offers of financial assistance from a former boyfriend. Unaware someone is setting her up for failure, she's totally unprepared to find herself fighting for survival. Police Detective Randy Detweiler thinks the crook is a thief who's been evading cops all over the state. A routine robbery investigation turns into the biggest challenge of his career when he falls in love with the victim and he starts crossing professional boundaries. When Sarah disappears, he's afraid all his detective skills might not be enough to find her in time to save her life.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

FINDING SARAH is the kind of book that will keep you up half the night, because it's just that good!

Sarah Tucker, a gift boutique owner in her late twenties, was widowed a year before the book starts. Her husband's death was closed as a suicide, though she doesn't believe he killed himself. Her life has been quiet and sad since his death, and she has struggled to stay afloat financially.

Her careful life begins to rip apart when she is robbed at gunpoint in her store. A police detective, Randy Detweiler, starts to ask questions, and realizes there seems to be a pattern forming as to her bad luck with the store. She's had a fire, shipment problems and supplier problems, among other issues, that she'd assumed were normal to a small business. Sarah doesn't have any enemies though, so she finds it hard to believe someone would be targeting her. Sarah and the detective develop a personal interest too, and soon she's reluctantly juggling two men, Randy and an old high school boyfriend, plus the memories of a much-loved husband gone too soon.

FINDING SARAH is the smoothest of reads, and as I said, nearly impossible to put down. Sarah is a most sympathetic character and you will root for all her problems to be solved!

Heather Hiestand