But There Were Signs

By Georgia Curtis Ling

Description:

What happens when good and evil collide?
Four pastors’ wives–turned amateur sleuths are playing a deadly game of cat and mouse with a suspected killer in Appalachia in Georgia Curtis Ling’s suspenseful, contemporary Christian, fast-paced thriller, But There Were Signs novel.

Ally Marshall leads the sisterhood of the Pastors’ Wives Club. They meet every third Thursday evening at the Mockingbird Coffee House in Spring Valley, Tennessee, a small town with a strong religious presence. These women share a common bond and rely on their like-minded friends in their unique challenges and joys of ministry life. The coffee house, sheltered under the high cathedral ceiling of an old church, offers the historic charm of a sacred place and becomes a haven of tranquility—until the unthinkable happens. One of their own is found dead.

The clock is ticking as these women band together, stopping for nothing as they race to solve their beloved friend’s mysterious death before time runs out and the killer gets away with murder. In their relentless search for truth, they discover a dark secret that they believe is the key to proving the “accidental death” was murder.

But suspicion does not solve the mystery. Their investigation takes them out away from their safe comfort zone and into the outskirts of a forbidden zone of a killer’s obsession, which fueled the motivation for the murder and will change their lives forever when he attempts to conceal his crime by killing again. With unimaginable and perilous days ahead, only the faith they cling to and their friendships will carry them through.

Book Takeaway:

But There Were Signs is a gripping fictional story of faith, courage, justice, and the unbreakable bond of friendships.

Why the author wrote this book:

The initial spark for the plot came from a newspaper clipping of a murder trial from 1994 that has haunted me for decades. It’s been tucked away in my office files for ages. Occasionally, I add another unbelievable tragedy to the file folder, but this one tragedy hit differently. Headlines of murder are only just part of the news—until one of the victims is one of your own. The murder victim from this particular crime wasn’t a family member but she was a pastor’s wife that I knew, which made her “one of us”—wives of pastors. I retained the title “Pastor’s Wife” for over twenty years. With more than 500,000 pastors serving in Christian churches in the United States, you get the idea that we’re a significant number.

A woman devoted to the Lord and ministry is the last person anyone would expect to be murdered. But when it happens, not only does it rock the family to its core, it sends shockwaves throughout the church family, friends, and community. Grief stricken, they rise up and demand justice for her death. These murders in ministry are always considered high profile cases that draws a vast amount of media attention, which often leads to putting your church on trial as members continue to navigate through their grief and crisis. Over the years, I’ve personally known three ministry families that have faced their darkest moments and lived through the nightmare of brutal and vicious murders. Hence, I imagined the Pastors’ Wives Club, a gathering of women who join together to solve the murder of a beloved member of their group. It’s a gripping fictional story of faith, courage, justice, and the unbreakable bond of friendships.