The Baker’s Wife by Erin Healy

To save her husband and son, Audrey Bofinger must rescue her enemy.
The Bofinger family has lost their church ministry in a scandal exposed by Officer Jack Mansfield. Hoping to heal and to restore their reputation, Audrey, Geoff, and their son Ed take over a failing bakery in the small community.
Driving to the bakery one morning, blinded by fog, Audrey hits a motor scooter owned by Jack’s wife, Julie. The mangled scooter is crushed and bloody. But Julie is nowhere to be found. Her disappearance coincides with a sudden illness that nearly cripples Audrey.
Jack believes the Bofingers have hurt Julie to take revenge on him, but the evidence dries up and her trail goes cold. At a breaking point, Jack takes the tiny bakery and its patrons hostage, issuing only one demand: Audrey has six hours to return Julie to him, or lose Geoff and Ed forever.
With only her gut, an ex-con, and Julie’s estranged daughter to help search for clues, Audrey starts the search of her life for a woman who has vanished like the fog.
Erin’s first two solo novels, Never Let You Go and The Promises She Keeps have received wide acclaim for their exquisite imagery, deep characters, and suspense. With her new novel, The Baker’s Wife, Erin does nothing less than that. In fact, she ups the ante with all of these and adds a little bit of mystery in there to boot.
The imagery is fascinating and draws you into the story. I could see the bakery and the apartment above it. I could see the accident and the fog. I could see the mangled scooter and the blood.
Erin has crafted amazing characters whom I never got bored with. I never groaned when it was a character’s turn to be the star of the chapter which I have done with other novels in the past– not Erin’s course. While I liked all of the characters in the story, there was one that absolutely jumped off the page at me. And that was the antagonist of this tale, Jack Mansfield. Jack is the best villain that Erin has ever crafted. Yes, he surpasses Ward(en), Craven, Norman Von Ruden, and even Porta.
I recommend this great novel everyone! Erin has made an even better name for herself with which I believe to be the greatest Erin Healy novel to date!