Though it doesn’t say so anywhere on its handsome cover, Riptide is an inspirational romantic suspense novel. The heroine is involved in a terrible crime and the loss of a loved one that leads her to a spiritual struggle.

Though Sarah MacIntosh and Julie Armstrong are identical twins, they were adopted by different families and only met a few months ago. They are the best of friends and loving sisters, and plan to open a business together. Both Sarah and Julie believe in God, in a vague, non-denominational sort of way, and Julie playfully dabbles in New Age mysticism as well. They meet a good-looking man, Nick Nordahl, who is interested in Sarah. He is an outspoken Christian who is critical of Julie’s crystal-waving ways.

Late one night, coming home from a long car trip, Sarah stops at a convenience store. Julie is asleep in the back seat, wrapped in a blanket. Sarah leaves the motor running as she goes in to buy some milk. Then a masked man holds the store up, shoots the store’s owner, and escapes – in Sarah’s vehicle. Julie is missing and in the hands of a killer, and Sarah is consumed with grief, guilt, and terror.

In the awful days that follow, the police search fruitlessly for Julie and her abductor. Nick is there to support Sarah, and they fall in love. Nick teaches Sarah about prayer and the tenets of his faith, and at first she draws a great deal of comfort from them. But then, when they learn that Julie is dead, Sarah runs up against a distinctly uncomfortable aspect of Nick’s Christianity. He says that the only way to get to Heaven is through belief in Jesus, which means that Sarah’s beloved parents are probably excluded; and, for all her kindness and her good works, Julie is too. Sarah angrily rejects a God who would turn away someone like Julie, who had a generous heart but who didn’t have a chance to turn to Jesus because her life was cruelly cut short.

This is an interesting book. The author is skilled at blending of suspense, romance, and spiritual dilemma. The emotional climax of the book, in which Sarah rejects both Nick and the God he believes in, is genuine page-turning material. I found Sarah sympathetic and three-dimensional throughout the book, and I rooted for her in everything she does, from her passionate desire to find her sister to her confusion over religious matters. Nick is not portrayed with nearly as much depth. He’s a very nice man who supports Sarah wholeheartedly, but the fact that he experiences no doubts or inner turmoil made him seem quite flat in comparison.

The first two thirds of this book moved along at a nice clip, but the final third falls into a nearly-deadly slump. This is after the big religious crisis, and both Sarah and Nick know that there can be no long-term relationship between them, so the novel leaves romance and religion behind and focuses almost entirely on the mystery. This is bad, because by this time I knew (as any halfway alert reader should know) exactly who the murderer is. There’s an inherent problem with a Christian book that’s also a mystery – it’s very easy for the reader to rule out possible suspects based on the status of their souls. Christian in good standing with the church? Not a suspect. Christian who expresses bitterness against God? Possible accomplice. Person who openly scorns God and His works? Maybe, but he’s a bit obvious. It’s no trouble to pick out the red herrings that litter this section. Sarah and Nick wander around interviewing people they’ve already interviewed, accomplishing nothing and boring me nearly to sleep.

I have another problem with the end of the book, one that’s more difficult to explain. The way Sarah’s spiritual conflict is resolved didn’t work for me. She undergoes a conversion experience – very literally a deus ex machina – and all her confusion and anger about God drop away, without being resolved. Sarah’s objections to Christian doctrine were specific and well-articulated, and were then swept away without really being addressed. I do understand that conversion to Christianity is generally an emotional experience, which casts aside all previous objections. I also understand that a 300-page novel can’t really do justice to such serious theological issues. But that being the case, perhaps the novel would have been more effective if those issues had not been raised in the first place.

Riptide is quite intriguing and entertaining for the first two-thirds. But I felt let down by the obvious solution to the mystery and, more seriously, by the inconclusive resolution of the religious debate. If you’re interested in a sweet romance with a mystery and a Christian focus, you may well enjoy it; in the end, I’m afraid I found it unsatisfying on several levels.