MIRACLE

Two women seek redemption in the form of a helpless catatonic man in this psychologically acute romantic mystery.

Annie is trying to piece her life together in Porto San Francesco after a decade of alcoholism and homelessness when she stumbles upon a man lying in a subway station. Mute, crippled, given to seizures and lacking any trace of identity apart from a St. Christopher medallion clutched in his hand, Freddie, as she dubs him, is even more vulnerable than she is, and nursing him back to health at her refuge in an abandoned office building gives her fragile existence a purpose. Annie loses contact with him when he falls onto an electrified subway rail and ends up in the hospital as a comatose John Doe, where the task of identifying him falls to detective Michela Solitro. The 37-year-old Michela is a tough cop, but she’s as lonely and wounded as Annie, and takes to holding long, one-sided heart-to-hearts with John by his bedside. Then a miracle occurs–John wakes up and emerges from a stint in rehab healthy, handsome and amnesiac. He’s like an extremely good-looking Martian fallen to earth, with no memories except for the intimacies Michela has shared with him–naturally, he’s devoted to her. Michela is cautious about getting too close, but his ardor and her intense attraction wear her down. Yet amid their love affair, Michela can’t abandon her responsibility as a cop. She feels driven to find out who John Doe really is, even if his past might pull him away. Lynn’s prose is rough in patches, but she crafts vivid, believable characters. The desperate Annie and the prickly Michela are worlds apart, yet they share a sense of honor and a longing to be taken out of themselves. Readers can’t help rooting for them as they try to connect.

An absorbing tale of secrets, passion and second chances.