Steal Away (Teri Blake-Addison Mystery Series #1) [Paperback]

Linda Hall (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 17, 2006

Dr. Carl Houseman, celebrated minister and speaker, is determined to find out what really happened to his wife, declared dead five years ago after her sailboat washed ashore on a coastal island of Maine. Private investigator Terri Blake-Addison must piece together the life of this woman who felt she didn't know or understand the God that her husband so faithfully served. Did Ellen really die in those cold Atlantic waters? When a murder rocks the island, Terri knows more is at stake than just the puzzling life of an unhappy minister's wife.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

With Steal Away, Hall begins the Teri Blake-Addison mystery series, featuring the aforementioned Teri, a newly married PI whose requisite quirks are so mild they don't seem worth committing to paper. However, the case--whatever happened to the wife of a famous evangelist--is puzzling and absorbing to the end, and it results in a kind of examination of the dedicated religious life. So the series may march on, but Teri could do with a bit of jazzing up. John Mort
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Linda Hall is the author of eight novels, including the bestselling Margaret's Peace, and seven nonfiction works. A fiction writing teacher and former journalist and English teacher, she grew up in a pastor's home in New Jersey and attended Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, where she met her Canadian husband, Rik. The couple live in Fredericton, New Brunswick, and have two grown children.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Multnomah Publishers (May 17, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590528816
• ISBN-13: 978-1590528815
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.6 x 8.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #931,376 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Welcome to my amazon page! I hope you will browse my list of books. Almost all of my books are available for your Kindle, so load up your Kindle with lots of good reading! If you like mystery, thriller or romantic suspense, you've come to the right place.

Most of my novels have something to do with the sea. I grew up near the ocean and my love of the ocean was born when I was a child. When I was a little girl I remember sitting on the shore and watching the waves and contemplating what was beyond. I could do that for hours.

One of the things my husband and I enjoy is sailing. In the summer we basically move aboard our 34' sailboat aptly named - Mystery.

Both my husband Rik and I have achieved the rank of Senior Navigator, the highest rank possible in CPS. The U.S. sister organization is the U.S.P.S. My Senior Navigator diploma hangs proudly on my office wall.
What this all means is that I know how to use a sextant and can 'theoretically' find my way home by looking at the stars.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars fascinating tale of portrayal, redemption and second chances, May 24, 2003

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Steal Away (Teri Blake-Addison Mystery Series #1) (Paperback)

The defining moment in Teri Blake Addison's life came when she was fourteen years old and her mother went out to do grocery shopping. She never came home and the police thought she was abducted because her car was found in the grocery parking lot. Several years later Tori becomes a police officer and then a private detective specializing in missing person cases. At age of thirty-eight she married the love of her life, widower Jack Addison, an English professor and fellow Christian.

Her latest client is world famous televangelist and foremost Christian apologist Dr. Carl Houseman who founded the rich congregation Houseman Ministries. He is getting married again five years after his wife was killed in a boating accident but before he puts an end to that period in his life he wants Teri to find out his wife's state of mind in her last days. Teri's investigation takes an unexpected turn when she comes upon a reclusive living on Grand Maran Island living with her twenty something mentally challenged daughter.

This novel will STEAL AWAY the reader from the ordinary world and transport them into the pages of this fascinating tale of portrayal, redemption and second chances. Without getting preachy, this mystery within a mystery focuses on the premise no sin is too big to be unforgivable if the person genuinely regrets what they have done (difficult to accept for many people). The protagonist is a likable person who does her job without alienating others and has such an honest personality that people open up to her. This is the first installment in what looks like a good mystery series.

Harriet Klausner

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An enigmatic compelling mystery & enchanting characters, June 29, 2003

By 

Lina Gardiner (New Brunswick, Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Steal Away (Teri Blake-Addison Mystery Series #1) (Paperback)

If you're looking for a mystery that you won't be able to put down, read Steal Away! Linda Hall's best book yet. This novel is complex, compelling, and the story is intricately woven into the lives of the exceptional characters Ms. Hall has created. The mystery will grab you and keep you guessing until the very satisfactory ending. Personalities spring to life throughout this book, each of them with their own set of problems and secrets, which build the escalating mystery to a fine pitch. This is the best book I've read in years. I can't wait for Ms. Hall's next book.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A great mystery, May 28, 2004

By 

lor369 - See all my reviews

This review is from: Steal Away (Teri Blake-Addison Mystery Series #1) (Paperback)

This was a great mystery. The author did a great job in presenting a mystery with so many questions to be answered. What happened to Ellen? Was she alive? Who was the mysterious Garda and her daughter. Why was Ellen so unhappy? And mixed in with the main story was Teri, the PI who was trying to solve the mystery for Ellen's husband Carl. She is struggling to fit in with the church, as well as struggling with the ghost of her husband, Jack's 1st wife.

The book not only presented a great mystery of betrayal and deception, but demonstrated the theme of grace and forgiveness. The book showed that no matter how far you stray from God, forgiveness is always there, no matter how "big" the sin is.

I do think that some things were rushed towards the end. What happened to Jimmy Jarvis? There was some speculation, but nothing was really resolved. Maybe that is just one of those things that will leave the readers guessing. Also, what happened to Audrey towards the end?

I would have liked to see the marriage between Teri and Jack explored more. I know that Teri felt that she was competing with the ghost of Jack's first wife. Maybe this will be explored in future books in the series.

Again, a great mystery book! I look forward to reading Chat Room.