Innis Grace, Stained Glass Window

Stained Glass Window

Innis Grace

Five Star, Sep 2006, $26.95

ISBN: 1594145164

In 2004 Colorado, a stranger calls Leigh to inform her that her spouse Phillip is having an affair with his wife. Leigh confronts her husband of twenty years who fails to deny the accusation. Irate and with their daughter attending college in London, she flees their home in Pine Crest to move into her family cabin in nearby Tear Lake.

Leigh finds a fascinating small journal written by an ancestor in 1850 that talks of love, relationships, treasure and a missing person. However, her sad musings are interrupted when lightning hits a tree which breaks a window in Leigh's cabin. She calls local glazier Brian Banyard, who recognizes her as a childhood friend who he played with at a nearby fishing hole. As Brian and Leigh become reacquainted, Phillip fears they are falling in love. Still he knows he was stupid letting a middle age crisis rule as he wants his beloved back even as they begin a search for a century old buried treasure hinted at in the journal.

Stained Glass Window is an interesting middle age inspirational relationship triangle starring three nice people though Phillip pays for his terrible mistake (as does his wife). Leigh is a fascinating protagonist who knows that "to err is human, to forgive is divine", but she feels so betrayed that she accepts she is not divine. Still Phillip will not give up even when history seems to be about to repeat its grisly self as he turns to God so does Leigh. Innis Grace provides a warm moving relationship drama that uses the past to remind the present about what matters most.

Harriet Klausner