The Face of the Earth

When you take your wedding vows, you agree to follow them until one of you or possibly both of you dies and the vow is no longer applicable. Yet what happens when your spouse simply never returns home despite being happily married? How long does one wait before it's acceptable to move forward? That is the premise behind the latest book from Deborah Raney, The Face of the Earth.

Jill and Mitchell Brannon are your typical married couple. They attend church regularly, have raised two children that are now attending college nearby and have close friends that live in the property directly behind theirs. Jill Brannon takes her husbands advice and attends a conference designed for teachers in nearby Kansas City and is expected back in a couple of days. All goes well and there's even a message awaiting Mitchell on their answering machine at home, that Jill has checked out of the hotel and is planning to see him soon with a surprise just for him. That was more than 5 hours ago. More than enough time for Jill to have driven home. There are no adverse weather conditions that would prevent her from arriving home as expected and despite all his calls to her cell phone all he gets is voicemail. How long will he have to wait before she comes home. How long would  you wait?

In the latest novel The Face of the Earth, Deborah Raney takes the reader into every single persons worst nightmare. What happens when someone you love simply vanishes off the face of the Earth without a trace. I found myself cringing at the waiting that Mitch has to do in simply not knowing where Jill has gone. The police have no clues and no real motives to speak of. Despite all his attempts to convince them that Jill is not the type to simply walk away from her marriage and family, they've seen enough cases to know this could very well be a possibility. Mitch relies on the help of Jill's best friend and their neighbor Shelley, to see if between the two of them, they might figure out where Jill is before the police can. But what if they can't? What if she simply has had a mid-life crisis and has left them all behind? Will Shelley confide in Mitch that Jill's ex boyfriend contacted her on Facebook and wanted to meet while she was away at the conference?
You'll have to pick this novel out to find out how it all ends!

I received The Face of the Earth by Deborah Raney compliments of Howard Books, a division of Simon and Schuster Publishers for my honest review and received no monetary compensation for a favorable one. This was such a compelling novel for me to not want to put it down until I knew what the outcome would be. In fact, I had to fight myself several times to not rush to the back of the book to find out more than half way through because the suspense was killing me. I forced myself to wait it out simply because like people who experience this kind of nightmare for real, the answers aren't found simply by going to the end of the book. They have to painstakingly live through it minute by minute. I am thankful that Deborah Raney decided to come up with a conclusion for this novel instead of simply leaving it as Jill never coming back and leaving the reader to come up with their own conclusions on what happened. Thank you, thank you for that! This one is a great read and makes you wonder how you would react in the similar situation, and praying that you never will have to know. I rate this one a 4.5 out of 5 stars and have added this to my growing Deborah Raney library of novels.

For more information about The Face of the Earth, Deborah Raney, or where to pick up a copy of this novel today, please click on the links below:

The Face of the Earth by Deborah Raney

You can also find Deborah Raney on Facebook to stay up to date with all her latest novels.

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Howard Books; Original edition (May 14, 2013)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416599975
• ISBN-13: 978-1416599975
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 1 inches 

You can find this novel at your local book retailer in paperback or eBook formats.