Positive Grace by Deb Haggerty

wondering what’s going to happen to Dr. Matt Newman, a doctor who’s just sold his medical practice to take up a post as assistant professor of surgery at Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. Exhausted after a life and death situation at Metropolitan Hospitals E.R., he walks out the door, heading to his car, and right into a kidnapping. When he woke up, he found himself in the trunk of his car headed Lord knows where. “He was on the way to his death. And the trunk of his car would be his coffin.”

On the other side of town, attorney Sandra Murray tossed and turned trying to sleep – an not uncommon practice for her. That rare breed, a Christian lawyer in private practice, Sandra was just recovering from a failed romance with Dr. Ken Gordon. She prayed that someday she would find a husband who fit her guidelines but held little hope as she considered her mother – off to Costa Rica to find herself, and her father – off to Alaska with his second wife.
How their paths cross and the outcomes of that intersection is the stuff of this finely written medical tale.

Richard Mabry is medical doctor residing in Frisco, Texas, who has a string of successful medical novels to his credit. Stress Test is another great yarn in that string. Nominated for an Inspirational Reader’s Choice Award, Stress Test should keep you reading late into the night.

I rated Stress Test four stars only because I found some of the exploits fairly unbelievable – more akin to Superman than Matt Newman. However, you’ll find it worth your while to delve into what caused him to undergo a Stress Test!

I was hooked by the end of the third paragraph: Spring was my favorite season. Once. Delanie leaves a bridal shower for her best friend, Clara, and drives towards home dreaming of being the next bride. Nearing home, she sees a figure standing in the shadows, “legs apart, as though ready to run. A chill needled my bones….I couldn’t see his eyes, but I felt them lock onto me.” Wondering if a burglar was loose in their small town of Redbud, Delanie thinks perhaps she should warn the neighbors. Looking down the street, she sees something lying on the sidewalk. “The chill inside me crackled to ice….But deep within I knew. Death had followed me.”

Are you hooked yet? I couldn’t put the book down until I finished it in the wee hours. Collins’ writing is rich with description, poignant with meaning, tantalizing as to script. What did Delanie mean? Who or what was on the sidewalk? What did she mean that death had followed her? You, too, will find it difficult to put down the book and won’t get sidetracked reading it. This is one of Brandilyn’s best – don’t miss this five-star mystery chockful of suspense!