Rising Darkness - A Book Review

Sophie Wittenbauer grew up in a conservative Mennonite community.  Unlike the good citizens of her town, she lived under the abusive hand of her parents.  She made some horrible choices and disappointed a lot of people in the town of Kingdom, but that is all behind her now.  She left her old miserable life behind and has started a new life for herself.  She is now an aspiring crime reporter and hoping to get a "big story" and make a name for herself.  When Sophie receives a tip on an unsolved case, she heads to Sanctuary, Missouri in search of a murderer and $6,000,000 in missing cash.

Once in Sanctuary she goes undercover and uses the name Emily.  She is not thrilled to be in a Mennonite town and it seems that more than just memories of her old life are surfacing.  When she runs in to Jonathan, the only man she has ever loved, she is taken back.  He is now a pastor in Sanctuary.  He has a hard time believing Sophie, but chooses to help her anyway.  It also seems that someone is on to "Emily".  When she begins receiving threats and then is attacked, she is not sure who to trust anymore.  As she is trying to find the murderer she begins to find herself and the healing that she so desperately needed.

Rising Darkness is the third book in the Finding Sanctuary series by Nancy Mehl.  You do not have to read the series in order, but I do think you would find it more enjoyable.  Since each story is set in Sanctuary, MO you get to know and connect with many of the town folk and it is nice to see glimpses of their lives in each book.  Sophie's story in Rising Darkness is a story of healing and forgiveness.  I love how Nancy Mehl can write a book with a great balance of faith, suspense and romance.  One of the things I love most about this author's books is that she is actually located very close to where I live and the towns on the outskirts of Sanctuary are real towns and towns that I am in on a regular basis.  That is just a really cool aspect for me.

I did have a little more trouble with this third book than I did the first two.  It took me a while to get into and connect with it.  I didn't feel like it was as good as the first two, however, it was still enjoyable and by the last half of the book I couldn't put it down.  It just took me a while to get to that point.

***Thanks to Bethany House Publishing for providing me with the book in exchange form my honest review.