Cape Refuge Books In Order

Publication Order of Cape Refuge Books

“Cape Refuge” is a series of Christian mysteries by Terri Blackstock, the bestselling author of romance, suspense, and spiritual/religious novels. The New York Times bestselling author has more than six million of her novels in print and has won numerous awards over the years. Among her many awards is a Career Achievement Award from the Romantic Times Book Reviews, a Christian Retailers Choice Award, and two Carol Awards. Born in US Air Force family, Blackstock spent the first twelve years of her life moving from place to place across the United States. She went to school for four years in the Netherlands and has lived in nine states. Since she was often the new kid who could not make friends fast enough, she had to find solace in her imagination. This is what drove her to become a novelist. By the time she was twenty-five she had sold her first novel and has never looked back since. Terri is known for the “Restoration,” “If I Run,” “Intervention,” “Newpointe 911,” “SunCoast Chronicles” and the “Cape Refuge” series.

By 1994, Blackstock was writing romance for the likes of Dell and Silhouette, Harlequin and HarperCollins under two pseudonyms. But then she got a spiritual awakening, which prompted her to get into Christian fiction. She was reading a lot of suspense at this time and was drawn to the thrillers that were about ordinary people dealing with grave danger. Her newly found faith soon found its way into her novels as she started offering motivation, inspiration, and hope rather than despair. Through it all, she hoped to entertain her readers while challenging them to think and grow. Terri also reminds her readers that their trials have a purpose and that they are of value to God.

The “Cape Refuge” series tells the intriguing stories of the people living in Cape Refuge, a small seaside community on a small island off the Georgian coast. There are no strangers in the small tight-knit community where everybody knows everybody. Nonetheless, the small community has a lot of crime that includes everything from kidnapping, murder, loan sharking, infant snatching among many others. Terri writes several subplots in each mystery that include the themes of halfway houses, psychics, infertility, romance, politics and faith. In “Cape Refuge” the first novel of the series, Wayne and Thelma Owen the operators of a halfway house are found brutally murdered. The police arrest Jonathan their son in law as their prime suspect. Confident he did not commit the crime, Morgan his wife, Blair her sister and the children of the murdered couple set out to prove he is innocent. In “Southern Storm” the second novel of the series, Cade the police chief goes missing after he hit and killed a man with his car. He had left town without a trace and did not take either his car, clothes or any money. The papers believe he left town to go be with a woman he was having an affair with. Blair Owens does not believe the theory and thinks something may have happened to the police chief and is determined to get to the bottom of the mystery. “Rivers Edge” the third novel of the series includes political intrigues when Ben Jackson the mayoral candidate’s wife goes missing and soon turns up murdered. Could it have been a dangerous client or lover, or did it have something to do with the election?

In “Cape Refuge” the first novel of the Cape Refuge series we are introduced to Wayne and Thelma Owens, the proprietors of a bed and breakfast in the small town of Cape Refuge. They work with the sailors on the local docks and prisoners released from prison, holding Sunday services and even hosting many down and out people in their home. They have two daughters: Morgan a dutiful daughter and wife to the fisherman Jonathan who works at the family B & B, and the younger daughter Blair who is the town’s librarian. Blair is a single woman that would have been beautiful if not for a scar on her cheek. Things take a turn when Jonathan has a public fight with his in-laws only for Wayne and Thelma to turn up brutally murdered in the building where they usually had their church services. Given their public argument, Jon is picked up as the lead suspect and now Blair and Morgan have to investigate the case to help the town’s young police chief Matthew Cade apprehend the real culprit. The novel has a raft of shady suspects and characters, and intense suspense as it tells of the family’s secrets from the past, of Blair’s disfigurement and who killed Wayne and Thelma.

“Southern Storm” the sequel to Cape Refuge the bestselling title tells the story of the missing police inspector. The inspector had hit a man who had walked in front of his car, only for the police chief to go missing with news around town asserting that he had run off to elope with some woman. The body in the morgue did not have any type of identification and no one knew where he came from or what he was doing in town. Cade had been investigating the case and learned that the man had been shot before he got hit, which made finding his identity even more critical to resolving the mystery. But soon after Cade goes missing, the authorities learn a few things. They find out the man’s name and that his wife had been the woman that had last been seen with Cade before he went missing. Speculation is rife about the inspector’s part in the death of the man and his relationship with the wife. The fact that he had disappeared soon after the killing makes him look very guilty. Blair Owen does not believe Cade could be so callous and thinks something may have happened to the police officer and she is determined to find out what. It will take faith to save the man and though she never had faith in God, he is her only hope now.

“River’s Edge” the third novel of the Cape Refuge series is the story of Lisa Jackson who was heartbroken by a man that betrayed her and another that manipulated and deceived her. But could one of them have killed her? Ben Jackson is the lead contender in the upcoming mayoral elections but then his wife goes missing a few days before a critical debate. Cade the Police Chief suspects foul play and launches a search across the island to find the missing woman. But they find nothing until a psychic points them in the right direction where Lisa’s body is hidden. All the evidence points to Ben as the murderer but Cade is not so convinced and digs deeper. Blair and Owns who now works for the “Cape Refuge Journal” is also not convinced and puts her skills into use to find out who may have had a motive for killing the woman. But she is using unorthodox means, which threatens her relationship with the inspector that is only made worse by a psychic’s predictions. Could the death of Lisa have been due to her many years of struggle with infertility, the alleged affair her husband had been accused of or could it have something to do with the upcoming elections? The killer has made his intentions clear, he is going to employ lethal methods if that is what it takes to evade justice.