In the Lord's Library Paperback - 2001

Judith Nobel is a respected, strong-willed young school teacher who came to the island in the Pacific Northwest a decade ago to give birth to her twin daughters. A private person, the locals know little about her except that she's a gifted educator. Ben Trilby is another of the Island's anomalies, an ex-police officer who says little and limps around on a cane while quietly running his local business. Like Judith, Ben came to the island to forget about his past, as well as the shooting that killed his female partner and left him crippled for life. Appearing content within their secluded, but separate lives, Judith and Ben know something is missing. One day, an innocent action of one of Judith's pupils sets into motion a series of events that will end in a tragic accident. Clinically dead for twenty-two minutes, Judith finds herself in a kind of utopian library where the books she's invited to read are about people from her past who have died. From these books she learns a secret about each person that she never knew before. When she leaves the library, she takes with her the will to love again. In the Lord's Library is a colorful story about ordinary people, and the extraordinary strength of the human spirit.