Merrimon Book Reviews - In Celebration of Books!!

Harbor Intrigue Series by Lyn Cote

Dangerous Season

A Christian meditation on anger

Dangerous Season is the first book in the Harbor Intrigue series. As inspirational romantic suspense, Harbor Intrigue can be read as a thoroughly enjoyable light suspense read set within a Christian community, but read with a more focused attention, this book would make a great book club or church book club choice. Dangerous Season provides a Christian meditation upon key scriptural passages through the lives of several characters.

Plot
Keir and Audra both have pasts. So do most of the people in this town. When a string of fires begins, Keir must catch the arsonist with evidence while many residents are very ready to cast blame on the easiest suspect. Does someone's past make him always guilty? How does a Christian take seriously the idea of redemption while also hunting down the culprit, especially when all clues keep leading to the easiest suspect? Audra is afraid to trust Keir with her secrets. Can the two of them learn to trust God and each other, especially with the whole town watching their every move, before the escalating arson becomes dangerous?

Dangerous Season sets up the three book series. The reader gets a feel for the resort harbor town and its residents. Although I preferred the following two books in terms of the story, this first book sets up the background of the town, the characters and even the style with which Lyn Cote provides Scriptural meditations.

Suspense in Dangerous Season
I chose this series with a question in mind: how would an inspirational author deal with elements of suspense as compared to my more typical thrillers and suspense reads? Lyn Cote builds suspense by writing of the emotional lives and experiences of her characters and all the intersections of relationships past and present. At times, as a reader, I felt that there was a powder keg ready to explode underneath all the tension. For me, this book expanded the concept of suspense as a genre to include suspense built through emotional detail instead of the typical dead body and terrifying graphic details of some thrillers. This book would be suitable for young readers because of the lack of violence and sexual graphics.

Inspirational Fiction and Dangerous Season
In terms of the inspirational tone, Dangerous Season, creates a scene where past reputations haunt and distort one's vision. For Christians characters who believe in forgiveness, facing the past can be a challenge to faith and a call to expand one's vision and faith. A nice narrative technique for suspense and inspiration!

Lyn Cote makes a bold move to wrestle with the theme of anger, often a problematic issue for people of faith. Is anger a sin? Can you be angry and not sin (see her Ephesians quote at the beginning)? How? Some anger is needed or else one becomes a doormat and an instrument to be controlled and manipulated. Some anger is righteous anger, and other anger is self-righteous and perhaps the key is knowing a difference. Lyn Cote glosses the first Ephesians inscription with another, "Speak the truth in love" and perhaps that is the key... love... and that gets us back to romance element developed by Lyn Cote in this book.

Reading Advice
This book would be a good book club one because there are many issues for conversation. Can anger ever be creative and constructive? Anger can be hurtful, mean and dangerous or a a constructive, creative force that causes a breakthrough in one's faith. Lyn Cote pits the hero and heroine at opposite ends of the anger spectrum. Keir was an angry young teen and even as an adult tends to be hurtful in his expression of anger. Audra expresses anger by withdrawing and repressing but Audra had to learn to open up her heart and mostly her faith and speak the truth in love, rather than letting her anger fester.

Dangerous Season can be read as a light inspirational read that will not offend with too many graphic details but it also continues to give and give when examined more closely. I rated this book high because it really shines when read in a more meditative inspirational manner. I encourage readers to focus on the scriptural citations at the beginning, the note to readers at the end and the discussion questions in order to guide their reading of as a starting place for book clubs or church discussion groups.

Dangerous Game

A Christian meditation on Judas

Dangerous Game is the second book in the Harbor Intrigue series. In this book, Lyn Cote increases the suspenseful atmosphere while maintaining the superb inspirational qualities established in the first book.

Plot
Grey Lawson returns to Winfield after being paroled from prison. After causing this fatal hit and run accident, how dare he return to this community where the wounds have yet to heal? Trish Franklin, the town's female deputy, is stuck right in the middle. As a law officer and Christian, she must seek the truth, but when accidents begin to escalate --- accidents a little too close to that terrible past event --- can she find the culprit? Can Trish protect the town as well as Grey from the town? Can she protect her heart from the dangers Grey poses?

Suspense and romance
In the second novel of the Harbor Intrigue series, Lyn Cote grabs the reader with the first paragraph! Wow! What a way to lead into the crux of the book and the suspense! In the first book Dangerous Season, Lyn Cote set the scene, the tone and the location for the series. The second book, in my opinion, steps up the suspense a couple of levels and shows her skill at creating suspense in an inspirational romance. Dangerous Game draws the reader into both the suspense, the characters, and the romance. The hero and heroine are well matched here and their dilemmas deep and intriguing.

Inspirational aspect of Dangerous Game
In terms of the inspirational aspect of this romance, once again Lyn Cote provides the reader with meditations on two well chosen scriptural passages and real life issues sometimes difficult for people and Christians in particular. I encourage readers and book clubs to read Lyn Cote's inscriptions, Notes to the Reader and the discussion questions before, while, and after they read this book. Dangerous Game reveals some intriguing talking points once you discuss it with another person.

In her "Dear Reader" note at the end of the book, Lyn Cote reflects upon the figure of Judas Iscariot. Her inscriptions talk about 2 issues: 1. God trying people like silver is refined (Psalms) and 2. faith as being more important over works lest one boast (Ephesians). The figure of Judas has always intrigued me (loved Taylor Caldwell's I, Judas). The apostles never had to deal with Judas returning to the community, but the residents of Winfield have to deal with the return of Grey Lawson. Can divorce have that Judas feel of betrayal? Sometimes even a child caught up in the middle feels like a Judas pulled in two directions even though the child is innocent. Sometimes the loss caused by death and grief feel like a betrayal to the loved ones left behind. How can a Christian deal with betrayal and the Judas figures that try his/her faith? How does a Christian community deal with betrayal, wrong deeds and the one who betrays when they come back to the community with a scarier history than the Prodigal Son? How does the community deal with those who did nothing wrong, like children of divorce? Lyn Cote examines all these types of betrayals and more in this inspirational novel with many suspenseful twists and turns.

More details
In her discussion of alcoholism Lyn Cote revises twelve steps used by AA and Al-Anon. Although initially this modification might be jolting to those familiar with the text, I know why Lyn Cote rewrote them and I agree with the revision in the instance of this book. Keeping the original text as it is would be silly and distracting to Christian readers. The "God as we understand him" concept explained in an inspirational romance where the genre and the readers expect to see God mentioned would distract rather than inspire.
I applaud Lyn Cote for bringing alcoholism and AA into the context of a Christian community. I know a lot of meetings are held in churches, but often there seems to be a split between the two groups for Christians. AA is not a religious organization and should not be, but I was intrigued by the way Lyn Cote did not shy away from these tough issues in an inspirational romantic suspense novel. Too often some inspirational fiction can be too simplistic --- one goes to church and then everything works out with no effort. Life is not that way and neither is faith. I applaud Lyn Cote for enriching the depth of inspirational fiction to tackle the tougher issues of faith in the genre.

Dangerous Secrets

Secrets in individuals and the community

In the final book of the Harbor Intrigue Series, Lyn Cote takes all the parts familiar to readers of the series and adds more. The suspense element grabs you from the first chapter if not the first page. In the third book, Dangerous Secrets, Lyn Cote increases the romance element while maintaining the inspirational and suspense qualities established in the first two books.

Plot
Sylvie Patterson wants to know the truth about the death of her cousin Ginger. Ridge is on loan to Winfield's police department and stuck right in the middle of the developing intrigue. When the string of break-ins continues, following the trail might become dangerous for body and heart. Side by side, Sylvie and Ridge seem to find the other uncovering their secrets too.

Inspirational aspect
Lyn Cote cites scriptural references in Matthew and I Timothy to ground her inspirational romantic suspense work in scripture. As the author develops the theme of money and treasure alongside the suspects, she looks outward at the community as well as inside the person. Can the environmental movement, meant to protect God's creation from the greed of money, have a dark underside? Can lotteries, often founded to fund noble purposes, create an underside in a community? Can the medicine, a profession that helps the community, become tainted when greed creates a structure that denies insurance and medical care to parts of the community? How does a person of faith respond as an individual and a community member? Some of these threads are less developed than others as the hunt for suspects narrows but their presence may lead to good book club discussions.

The romance element
Of the three books in the Harbor Intrigue series, I would be hard-pressed to tell you which of the three I liked the best. Although the suspense was more prominent and satisfying in the second book, Dangerous Game, this third book might be my favorite because the romance element shines here. I just really enjoyed all the twists and turns when Sylvie and Ridge got put together. Their romance brought each to new understandings of themselves and to depth of faith.

Some notes on the Harbor Intrigue series as a whole
Having read the third and final book, I would like to take the opportunity to comment on the series as a whole. Of all the romances I have read this year, I like the way Lyn Cote writes her heroes in this series. I found myself being drawn to and curious about her heroes more than in my usual romance reads. In all three books, I found that the secondary plots and characters provided an intriguing inspirational development that added to the whole. It felt like the ripples spreading outwards on a water surface. This technique makes the suspense, the romance, the setting and the inspirational elements more intriguing and a good choice for book club reading. In the Harbor Intrigue series, an absent person has an effect on the characters. It's more than the dead bodies motivating the suspense and the search for truth. It adds a flavor to the novel and the inspirational aspect.

Lyn Cote takes some of the dark undertones in a community and brings them to light in her writing and as inspirational meditations. The Harbor Intrigue Series is a thoroughly enjoyable light suspense read set within a Christian community but it can also be a great book club choice because the series also introduces nuances that can provoke group discussion grounded in and extending beyond the inspirational romance and to an audience that might include those of a mature faith.