What If Your Husband Didn't Come Home?

This year Cynthia Ruchti will once again be Assistant Director for the Quad-Cities Christian Writers Conference, held April 8-9 in Eldridge, Iowa.  For more information about the conference or to register please visit http://www.qccwc.com.  She would love to meet you there and so would we! 

Last year, Cynthia's first novel was released to great success.  What follows is my review for:
They Almost Always Come Home
Cynthia Ruchti's debut novel.

Move over Ted Dekker. “They Almost Always Come Home” is one of those books that grabs your attention on the first page and holds your heart all the way till the last. By the time the first chapter ended, I was hooked on this story of a real woman facing real problems the best way she knows how.

Libby’s husband, Greg, is late coming home from a wilderness/camping-fishing trip. But Libby is not sure if she’s mad or glad about that. The loss of their young daughter has put so much stress on Libby and the marriage that some days she isn't sure if their life together can survive or if she even cares any more.  Despite Libby's conflicting emotions, Greg's mysterious absence is all she can think about.

After taking the waiting as long as she can, Libby enlists her best friend, Jenika, and Greg's wilderness-savvy father to join her in a trip attempting to retrace her husband’s steps to find out what really happened.  Libby & her friend are as far from campers as you can get and she has never really gotten beneath the hard exterior of Greg’s father. She leaves half-expecting to find Greg has left her for another woman. Her journey and what she finds cause her to reach to the very depths of her faith in God.  At this point the story really kicked into high gear for me and became as suspenseful as any John Grissom or Stephen King I’ve read.

The book had me reading late into the night. The gripping story took twists and turns I never saw coming and kept me turning pages, on edge and nervous for the characters. As I read this story I felt I was reading behind the scenes of a real life mystery as it unfolded.

Author Cynthia Ruchti’s writing is REAL. You can feel Libby’s frustration and fear, her anger and grief; her humor and sentimental moments all ring true. Libby, Jenika (her sister in Christ and best friend in faith) and Frank (Greg’s father) seemed like friends I might run into at the corner store or Wal-Mart. The faith and commitment they exhibit is never overdone, but always just people doing what people who really care for each other do faced with a crisis.

It was one of the things that made this book so satisfying to read.

I hope if you’re a mystery or suspense fan you won’t be disappointed in “They Almost Always Come Home."  And come join Cynthia and all the other professional faculty at the QCCWC.  Maybe your book will be the "blest-seller" I review next year!