Colleen Coble’s “Because You’re Mine” is a brilliant Hitchcockian tale full of twists and turns.
Alanna Connolly seems to have the dream life — four months pregnant, married to the love of her life Liam, and becoming a rising star in her increasingly popular four-woman Celtic band, Ceol. But it all comes crashing down one night when Liam, who is testing out his buddy Jesse’s new car, is killed in an explosion.
What follows is a dark, twisted, crazy story as Alanna moves to a formerly glorious estate in Charleston, S.C., with her manager Barry, who offers to marry her and keep her and her baby out of the clutches of Liam’s influential parents in Ireland.
With a spooky old southern belle of a house, a murderous gator in a too-close-for-comfort swamp, mysterious disappearances, possession, obsession and murder, “Because You’re Mine” is very much like an old gothic tale, reminiscent of many of the old film noir movies — Alfred Hitchcock would swoop up this tale in a heartbeat.
But besides being a great suspenseful mystery, “Because You’re Mine” offers up some deep lessons too — overcoming bitterness; the power of love (“Love doesn’t destroy what is important to the other person,” as Alanna says to Barry); the fact that God knows us even from the womb; and having the knowledge that we are fearfully and wonderfully made, each individually in God’s eyes.
Besides a dark plot and an ending with more twists than a soft-serve ice cream cone, “Because You’re Mine” does have some soft moments — Alanna’s remembrances of times with Liam, her rescue of an adorable kitten and the scruffy stray dog Prince, and her love of all things bare foot!
Colleen Coble has written an incredible story for fans of dark and suspenseful, yet redemptive tales.
Five stars out of five.
Thomas Nelson provided this complimentary copy for my honest, unbiased review.