The Baker's Wife

By: Erin Healy

Narrated by: Nan Gurley

Before Audrey was the baker's wife, she was the pastor's wife.

Then a scandalous lie cost her husband a pastoral career. Now the two work side-by-side running a bakery, serving coffee, and baking fresh bread. But the hurt still pulls at Audrey.

Driving early one morning to the bakery, Audrey's car strikes something—or someone—at a fog-shrouded intersection. She finds a motor scooter belonging to a local teacher. Blood is everywhere, but there's no trace of a body.

Both the scooter and the blood belong to detective Jack Mansfield's wife, and he's certain that Audrey is behind Julie's disappearance.

But the case dead-ends and the detective spirals into madness. When he takes her family and some patrons hostage at the bakery, Audrey is left with a soul-damaged ex-con and a cynical teen to solve the mystery. And she'll never manage that unless she taps into something she would rather leave behind—her excruciating ability to feel other's pain.

Divides the Wheat from the Chaff

The Baker's Wife is one of the best books I've listened to in a long time. I love Christian fiction, and this one is exceptional on many levels. It's a crime drama (one of my favorite), and it also tells the story of two very different families, who profess to be Christians. Jack, police officer and deacon in the church, wears his "Christianity" like a cloak of righteousness, quipping out Bible verses like weapons against everyone he meets. He led the deacons and church to dismiss their pastor, Geoff for allegedly coercing Jack and Julie's daughter, Miralee into having an abortion. Now the pastor and his wife have opened a bakery together, and continue to serve the Lord. Geoff's wife, Audrey (The Baker's Wife) hits a motor scooter in dense fog one morning . . . but the rider is nowhere to be found. The story that unfolds is harrowing . . . and amazing.

Simple but nice, Christian theme

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

Not the best I've listened to but certainly not the worst. Characters a bit stereotyped.

Have you listened to any of Nan Gurley’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

The narrator did a good job.

Interesting

From the beginning, this book begins by crafting a strange and puzzling mystery. We learn about a woman recently released from prison, returning to her hometown to right a wrong. At the same time, due to foggy conditions, a collision occurs, resulting in a possible injury. When the driver steps out of her car, discovering who or what she’d accidentally plowed over; to her surprise, there isn’t anything there. Where a body should have been; there was none. Instead, she finds a scooter (small motorbike) and a pool of spilled blood. Slowly, the writer weaves life paths crisscrossed by the characters; telling a story in a way that intersects these paths, and explains the missing body. We’re also told about a conflict that occurred some months ago, involving two families. This ignites, sparking a catalyst. Due to a teen pregnancy, resulting in an abortion; each family experiences difficult life changing choices. Decision that will forever affect their world.

I found this book to be interesting, on more than one level and I wanted to listen to it all the way to the end. However, the readers performance lacked dramatic flair. At every turn, I felt like I was a small child in a classroom, listening to my fourth grade teacher, reading her students a story. In the beginning, I noted a slight effort on the readers part, to vary her voice for each character however, this didn’t last long. Her reading made a potentially good book fall short. In many instances, as the listener, I was left to wonder, which character was speaking. Without the book in front of me, I had to take a stab at it and simply guess and that shouldn’t happen when listening to audiobooks. On a few occasions, I wanted to give up listening because another reader could have made all the difference in the world.

So, if you are a frequent audiobook listener, I would caution you before buying this book. Prepare yourself not to be dazzled by a dramatic performance because in this area; the reader does not deliver.

The Baker's Wife

This is one of these stories that you can't stop listening to. What a great author and the narrator was very good.
I plan on listening to another book by Erin Healy.

Great

I'm speechless. Just an overall great story. Refreshing story. Felt good not to read a rerun of the same boring storyline.