58393

Excellent. Can be read as a stand alone or as part of a series. Filled with good people striving to live right and of course there are always the bad. Presents Christain vakues without preaching.

FROM LIBBY: When a plane crash claims her husband and son, Bree Nichols and her search-and-rescue dog won't rest until they recover the bodies. But when quiet Rock Harbor is shaken by a violent crime, Bree discovers links to her husband's fatal accident. Would solving this crime bring her peace—or more incredibly, reunite her family?

It’s been months since the crash. K-9 search-and-rescue worker Bree Nicholls knows the chances of finding her husband and son in the vast wilderness of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula grow more remote by the day. But her heart and her faithful dog, Samson, demand she keep searching.

Deep in the woods a young boy wakes in a tiny cabin. He’s being nursed back to health by a reclusive woman, but he can’t figure out why she calls him by a name he doesn’t recognize. Or why she’s calling herself his mother. He wants to leave, but as winter sets in, his very life depends on her care.

Meanwhile, Bree’s relentless determination to find her family has uncovered a violent crime. With the help of Park Ranger Kade Matthews, she discovers the violence may be linked to the plane crash that took her family. Could solving the crime bring her healing from her own loss?

Set in the untamed beauty of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, the Rock Harbor novels draw listeners into the life and adventures of a canine search-and-rescue team as it unravels the secrets of an enchanting wilderness. ( )

Title: Without a Trace (Rock Harbor #1)
Author: Colleen Coble
Pages: 303
Year: 2013
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
My rating is 4 out of 5 stars.
Bree Nicholls is a young widow who works as a search and rescue canine worker. Her husband and young son are presumed to be dead after their plane failed to show up for a scheduled landing. Bree has been searching the last 11 months in the North Woods of Michigan. This search has taken over her life. People of the town of Rock Harbor notice the change in her. Her best friend urges her to give up the search and move on with her life. Bree finally agrees to do so when someone finds a lost mitten with her son’s initials inside.
An avid rock climber, Fay Aster, tells Bree she might have some information about seeing something from a plane on one of her hikes. Fay keeps a journal of her hikes and asks Bree to meet her the next day so they can go over her journal. Bree’s hopes for information are dashed when Fay is found dead at the bottom of a cliff wall. Her backpack along with her journal are missing. It is quickly determined that Fay did not fall but was murdered. Park Ranger Kade Matthews wants to help Bree discover answers to the murder that may lead to answers to her missing family.
I loved the way Anu, Bree’s mother-in-law, brought God into conversations. Even when Bree expressed her doubt or unbelief, Anu kept loving Bree. Her best friend, Naomi, was the same. So, Bree had people in her life who kept showing her God’s love through Bree’s grief and doubt. I think this is a good start to what I hope is an exciting series. I am looking forward to going back to Rock Harbor for book two in the series: Beyond a Doubt.
Note: The opinions shared in this review are solely my responsibility. ( )

As the back cover of this book says it so well, this is a "whodunit with a wide-ranging cast of characters that captures the small-town America. Colleen Coble brings Michigan's Upper Peninsula to life". If you love a good mystery with a little bit of romance, then you should enjoy this book and this series.

Bree Nichols runs a search-and-rescue team in the UP and has never stopped searching the wilderness around her for her husband and young child's downed plane. She wants closure on what happened and wants to be able to find their bodies. But while she searches a violent crime takes place. Can the two be related some how? I won't spoil the outcome of this story, but will say I didn't have the mystery completely figured out until the author revealed all the clues. Good work! Looking forward to the next book in the series, "Beyond a Doubt". ( )

This was a Christian mystery without being too preachy. I was surprised at whom the murderer was. ( )