In her head, Libby Holden is planning her husband's funeral
as she stands at the window waiting for him. He is
extremely late returning from a solo wilderness camping
trip to Canada. If something fatal hasn't already happened
to him, he's a dead man when he does get home.
She should not be having these thoughts, but lately her
thoughts have been about leaving him anyway. Since the
death of their 12-year-old daughter three years ago, her
marriage has not been the same. She blames Greg, her
husband, for Lacey's death; although all he did was make
her go to school that day when she wanted to stay home.
Neither of them knew a crazed student would open fire with
a gun and Lacey would be killed.
When Greg has been missing for more than a day, Libby calls
the police and then Greg's father. The Canadian authorities
are also notified and an aerial search of the area begins.
Libby and Frank, her father-in-law, can't just wait around
for something to happen. Frank suggests they retrace Greg's
trip. They find his maps and plans and she, Frank, and her
best friend, Jen, set out for Quetico Park.
The journey is a grueling one. This is real wilderness. No
conveniences. You carry everything you need with you. And
when a lake runs out, you carry your canoe and all your
belongings across a strip of land to the next lake or river
area. Libby has never done anything so hard in her life.
As the journey lengthens, Libby questions why she is doing
this. She has almost already made up her mind to leave
Greg, and now she is traipsing after him. Her thoughts and
prayers lead her to understand that she is the one who put
the wall up when Lacey was killed. Greg tried, but didn't
know what to do for her. She shut him out and now she wants
him back in her world, more than ever.
Along the way, they find a couple of items belonging to
Greg and have some hope of finding him. But when they reach
the end of their journey -- the end of his map -- they begin
to lose hope. Then Frank discovers something on the map in
very fine print that might be a clue to where Greg went.
Will Greg be found dead or alive?
This is a compelling story of a woman coming to grips with
her own feelings and faith. Cynthia Ruchti uses the
element of humor to keep the reader engrossed in her story
and turning the pages. This is a great debut novel!
When
Libby's husband Greg fails to return from a two-week canoe
trip to the Canadian wilderness, the authorities soon write
off his disappearance as an unhappy husband's escape from an
empty marriage and unrewarding career. Their marriage might
have survived if their daughter Lacey hadn't died and if
Greg hadn't been responsible. Libby enlists the aid of her
wilderness savvy father-in-law and her faith-walking best
friend to help her search for clues to her husband's
disappearance if for no other reason than to free her to
move on. What the trio discovers in the search upends
Libby's presumptions about her husband and rearranges her
faith.
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