Dr. Lucas Hudson is a doctor in the small town of Blackhawk, Iowa, who is acting as medical examiner in the absence of the usual coroner when he's called to the scene of what appears to be an open and shut suicide. Before everyone can sign off on the death, though, the body of a young woman is unearthed from the barn floor just below the hanging body. Lucas is having some really serious issues in his life and in his marriage, but this discovery offers hope that things can turn around for him and his wife.

Years before Lucas even knew about Blackhawk, Iowa, fourteen year old Meg Painter met Dylan Reid, the new boy in town. They became the closest of friends that summer before her first year in high school. He made her feel things she never had imagined she could. But Jess, her neighbor, was the safest choice for her and he made his interest clear. Even though Meg spent two years as Jess' girlfriend, she never forgot Dylan or the way she had felt about him.

The choices that Meg made in her past collide head on with Lucas in the present. The question is whether or not their intersection of past and present will bring peace and happiness to anyone.

It's hard to talk about SLEEPING IN EDEN without giving away too much information. The various twists and turns in the plot are what make it such a special and captivating read.

Suffice it to say that, from the first page, I was drawn into the story of Lucas and Meg. It begins in the present and then travels to the past to cover events that lead up to the stunning climax of the story. While it took a while to understand how these two very different stories related to each other, once everything was explained, I was left slack jawed.

SLEEPING IN EDEN is a great mystery and there's definitely an element of suspense. I became quite involved in the fictional lives of these characters and hoped that all would end well. Filled with bittersweet events, I found myself moving from concern to hopefulness to an ending of happiness and sadness intertwined.

Well written with three dimensional characters that you'll come to love and, possibly, hate, along the way, SLEEPING IN EDEN is one of those special books that you get lucky enough to be a part of and will be grateful that you had the opportunity.

Book Summary

The lives of a middle-aged doctor and a love-struck young woman intersect across time in Sleeping in Eden, Nicole Baart's haunting novel about love, jealousy, and the boundaries between loyalty and truth.On a chilly morning in the Northwest Iowa town of Blackhawk, Dr. Lucas Hudson is filling in for the vacationing coroner on a seemingly open-and-shut suicide case. His own life is crumbling around him, but when he unearths the body of a woman buried in the barn floor beneath the hanging corpse, he realizes this terrible discovery could change everything. Lucas is almost certain the remains belong to Angela Sparks, the missing daughter of the man whose lifeless body dangles from a rope above.

When Angela went missing years earlier, he and his wife never really believed she was just another teenage runaway. Fueled by passion, Lucas resolves to uncover the details of Angela's suspected death, to bring some closure to their small community and to his wife. But his obsession may not be able to fix what is broken, and Lucas may be chasing shadows... Years before Lucas ever set foot in Blackhawk, Meg Painter met Dylan Reid. It was the summer before high school and the two quickly became inseparable. Although Jess, Meg's older neighbor, was the safe choice, she couldn't let go of Dylan and the history they shared no matter how hard she tried.

Caught in a web of jealousy and deceit that spiraled out of control, Meg's choices in the past ultimately collide with Lucas's investigation in the present, weaving together a taut story of unspoken secrets and the raw, complex passions of innocence lost