Erin Healy, editor-turned-novelist, knows fiction from the inside out. She spent many years as an award-winning fiction editor working with such renowned novelists as James Scott Bell, Melody Carlson, Colleen Coble, Brandilyn Collins, Traci DePree, L. B. Graham, Rene Gutteridge, Robin Lee Hatcher, Denise Hunter, Randy Ingermanson, Jane Kirkpatrick, Frank Peretti, Lisa Samson…and the list goes on. (Wow.) In 2002, she began working with rock-star novelist of the supernatural, Ted Dekker, editing twelve (count ’em, twelve) of his books before co-authoring with him Kiss and Flame.

Healy went on to write several novels in her own name, including The Baker’s Wife.

From the back cover: 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.

I loved this spellbinding novel. From the original plot and setting to the complex characters, this story earned my admiration and approval. Every beat of every scene is exquisitely fleshed out. Healy gives her readers a deeply sympathetic heroine, with a supernatural ability to feel another’s pain, as well as one of the most spine-chilling villains–a self-proclaimed Christian with twisted theology–I’ve encountered. The story provides satisfying turns in both plot and character development. On top of that, Healy possesses one of the most engaging voices I’ve found in Christian fiction.

Another aspect of The Baker’s Wife that intrigued me was the handling of the moral issues. There’s murder, premarital sex and abortion, and yet these hot-button issues are handled without judgment, with compassion and grace.

On her website, www.erinhealy.com, Healy says this about her books: “The Irish girl in me is fascinated by the concept of thin places, a Celtic name for locations in the world where the veil between physical and spiritual realities is so delicate that a person can see through it. For me, thin places are revelations about what it means to be a spiritual creation in a physical world. I write supernatural suspense novels from a Christian worldview, with eyes open to God’s mysterious side. Read with me into the thin places where God’s world intersects ours, and changes it forever.”

Love that!

In summary, I could not put this book down and I cannot wait for the next one by this talented novelist. Erin Healy, you’ve won yourself a new fan.

5/5 stars, spellbinding storytelling