Waking Samuel

An emotional and startlingly honest thriller about loss and redemption. He is known only as the tall man, a victim of a gunshot wound discovered on a remote beach northwest of Seattle. Motionless and nearly mute, he lies saintlike in his hospital bed, tended vigilantly by his nurse, Sara Black. Sara is struggling to recover a loss of her own-a car accident that killed her four-year-old son. In agony over what she might have done differently, Sara finds herself spending more and more time with the tall man. As he draws Sara into a strange and chilling story about his past on an Alaskan island, she must face some truths of her own, as well as the realization that the patient to whom she's devoted herself may not be who he says he is. Full of compassion and brilliantly rendered landscapes, Daniel Coyle's first novel is an intelligent, suspenseful portrayal of the journey one woman must take to find forgiveness.