Facing the past can be deadlyâ¦
Twenty years ago, Lainey Colton spent one perfect summer in Deer Run with her beloved great-aunt Rebecca. Since then, the beautiful graphic designer has been a gypsy, calling no place home. Now Rebecca is gravely ill, so Lainey has returned to Deer Run to care for herâ¦and to escape her mistakes.
Lawyer Jake Evans gave up a high-powered job to build a quieter life in the small Pennsylvania town. So when a beautiful stranger appears after twenty years gone, he naturally questions her motives. Still, he is drawn to Lainey. But no amount of attraction will matter if he canât keep her safe from a mysterious threatâ¦.
Praise for Marta Perry
âWith her crisp storytelling, strong suspense and unique, complex charactersâboth Amish and EnglischâPerry is sure to hook readers in. Add to that combination an intricately woven plot, with several twists, and fans wonât be able to put Search the Dark down.â
âRT Book Reviews
âPerryâs story hooks you immediately. Her uncanny ability to seamlessly blend the mystery element with contemporary themes makes this one intriguing read.â
âRT Book Reviews on Home by Dark
âPerry skillfully continues her chilling, deceptively charming romantic suspense series with a dark, puzzling mystery that features a sweet romance and a nice sprinkling of Amish culture.â
âLibrary Journal on Vanish in Plain Sight
âMarta Perry illuminates the differences between the Amish community and the larger society with an obvious care and respect for ways and beliefsâ¦.She weaves these differences into the story with a deft hand, drawing the reader into a suspenseful, continually moving plot.â
âFresh Fiction on Murder in Plain Sight
âLeahâs Choice, by Marta Perry, is a knowing and careful look into Amish culture and faith. A truly enjoyable reading experience.â
âAngela Hunt, New York Times bestselling author of Let Darkness Come
âLeahâs Choice is a story of grace and servitude as well as a story of difficult choices and heartbreaking realities. It touched my heart. I think the world of Amish fiction has found a new champion.â
âLenora Worth, author of Code of Honor
Dear Reader,
I hope youâll enjoy the third book in my latest Amish suspense series. If you happen to come to my area of north-central Pennsylvania, youâll find many small towns that look very much like Deer Run, nestled in the valleys with the wooded ridges rising above them. In fact, our farmhouse is at the narrowest point of a creek valley, which makes life interesting when the creek rises!
I enjoyed revisiting Deer Run for this conclusion to my story. The characters became very real to me, and I wanted to show them finding their happy endings after all the trials they went through. If you guessed who the killer was all along, congratulations!
Please let me know how you felt about my story. Iâd be happy to send you a signed bookmark and my brochure of Pennsylvania Dutch recipes. You can email me at [email protected], visit me on Facebook or at www.martaperry.com, or write to me at MILLS & BOON HQN, 233 Broadway, Suite 1001, New York, NY 10279.
Blessings,
Marta Perry
This story is dedicated to my granddaughter, Ameline Grace.
And, as always, to Brian, with much love.
No winter lasts forever. No spring skips its turn.
âAmish proverb
CHAPTER ONE
LAINEY COLTON JOLTED AWAKE, her heart pounding in her ears. She stared into darkness so intense she couldnât make out anything beyond the outlines of the strange bed. She sat upright, turning. A pale rectangle marked the window, and her panic waned.
How stupid. She was in Great-aunt Rebeccaâs house, in tiny Deer Run, Pennsylvania. Sheâd fallen asleep, exhausted after the flight and drive and the stress of the past few weeks, in the bed that had been hers the summer she was ten.
That had been twenty years ago, but the room felt intimately familiar now that she was awake. She rubbed the gooseflesh on her bare arms. The dream that woke her must have been something out of a horror movie. Odd, that she couldnât remember anything about it.
But maybe just as well, since she had no desire to slip back into nightmares. Lainey plumped the pillows, straightened the hand-stitched quilt, and settled herself to sleep.
Sleep seemed to have fled. As her eyes grew accustomed to the dark, she made out the shapes of the chest of drawers, the rocking chair, and the bookshelf that still held the complete set of Laura Ingalls Wilder books sheâd devoured as a ten-year-old. Her Amish great-aunt probably wouldnât have approved of most of Laineyâs reading choices, but sheâd been happy to see her Englisch great-niece reading the Little House books.