I love/hated Seagrass Pier. I loved the story, but hated to see the story end. Here’s hoping there’s at least one more book in the Hope Beach series! I kept picking the book up, reading a bit, and putting the book down – the suspense builds and keeps building – you’ll love/hate it, too!

Elin Summerall works at an organ bank – finding appropriate recipients for donated organs by the families of those who’ve died. She loves her work – seeing life come from death – and when she herself needs a heart transplant, is fortunate enough to have the perfect donor. Except Elin starts remembering – remembering what the donor, Laura, has gone through and remembers. Elin has a difficult time convincing people that she’s seen Laura’s murder – the only person who seems to believe her is her good friend, Sara.

Enter someone from Elin’s past – the father of her child, Josie, the product of a one night stand on the eve of her father’s death. Mark Everton doesn’t believe Elin’s story, but sees immediately that Josie must be his child – the resemblance is uncanny. As determined as he is to find the murderer of his partner, Will, he is equally determined to be in Josie’s life.
Elin is being tormented or stalked or both by Laura’s killer – Marc agrees to help and the chase is on. The hows and whys of the chase/stalking/murders is the stuff of bad dreams. You’ll either be up all night reading to find out the ending or putting it down and picking it up later as I did.

Coble never disappoints – I’ve read most of her books and find them all suspenseful and highly enjoyable. I interviewed Colleen at the International Christian Retail Show this past summer – the second time I’ve been privileged to talk with her. As in the previous interview, her husband, Dave, accompanied her. Colleen always researches what she writes – and her stories always have a “water” setting. Her new series, Shadow Bay – the first book will be Inn at Ocean’s Edge – is set in Maine. She says she always has loved Maine. Claire comes to Folly Shoals to help her father land a major merger deal. As soon as she arrives, she has a panic attack and doesn’t know why. Minutes later she discovers she went missing here when she was 4 and wasn’t found for a year. No one knows where she was during that time. To get to the truth, she joins forces with Luke whose Mom went missing the same night Claire did. I can’t wait for this one!!!

Colleen and Dave have a granddaughter they call Punkie, who is five years old, so this story is near and dear to her heart. Colleen and Dave have traveled quite a bit – from Maine to Cambodia, Hawaii to Puerto Rico. They do spend winters in Arizona, though.

I asked Dave, not Colleen, to tell me something unusual that her fans wouldn’t know. He said, “I pick out her clothes!” Colleen agreed telling me he always finds something she loves that she wouldn’t have picked for herself – “although it took me a while to let him do it!”

You’ll enjoy all her novels – especially the Hope Beach Series!

I was given an advance reading copy of Seagrass Pier by Thomas Nelson for my unbiased review.