Out of Time

Hannon (Over the Edge) wraps up the Undaunted Courage series with this pulse-pounding contemporary. Anthropologist Cara Tucker is taking a sabbatical in rural Missouri, where she’s helping Natalie Boyer, a local woman, translate family journals written in Paw Paw French, a nearly extinct dialect once spoken by French settlers in the region. Natalie hopes the journals will shed light on her thorny family history, including the suspicious circumstances surrounding a relative’s death in the 1930s. But a series of too-coincidental disasters—a fire set on Natalie’s property, her handyman’s mysterious death—soon has both women wondering if someone might be determined to keep the journals’ secrets buried. After local sheriff Brad Adams gets involved in the case and seeks Cara’s help extracting clues from the diaries, he begins to suspect the real culprit might be closer to home, even if he can’t yet discern their motive. Hannon keeps the tension high as Brad and Cara harness their faith to unravel a mystery that’s rooted in an intricate web of long-ago affairs, contested inheritances, and buried jealousies. Readers will be on the edge of their seats until the very end. (Oct.)