In the LDS suspense novel “Code Red,” we read about Nicole, a young woman who grew up on a military base. As a child, she saw her father murdered, but there was a cover-up and the military refused to acknowledge that any such thing had happened, claiming instead that her father had chosen to leave his family. Even her mother doesn’t believe her, and Nicole is sent to a mental institution where she lives for the better part of a year, until she realizes that if she doesn’t retract the story, she’ll never gain her freedom. Squelching down the things she knows to be true, she’s finally allowed to leave, but her mother and sister treat her differently and she can’t bring up her father at all.
For years, she wonders if she really did go insane. After all, if the military denies any knowledge of what happened, and they couldn’t find anything after a long, intensive search of the hillside where she saw the murder take place, she has nothing to rely on but her own faulty memory. She tries to move on with her life, putting the past behind her, and hopes that her mother and sister will someday stop looking at her with the suspicion that she might have another “episode.”
When Marcie, her sister, marries a military man and takes a home on the base where the girls grew up, Nicole’s apprehensions return. And when Marcie’s husband is called up to go to Iraq and she asks Nicole to come stay with her for a while, Nicole realizes this could be her chance to put all those old demons to rest. But once back on base, the demons aren’t quieted—they’re enlivened, and Nicole is convinced that she did, indeed, see her father murdered.
Lt. Braedon Morgan is taken with Nicole from the first moment he lays eyes on her. The attractive deep red of her hair catches his attention first, as does her devotion to her family and her faith. As he comes to know her better, she tells him her story, and he is intrigued. Together, they launch an investigation that will uncover the truth, but will also endanger their lives.
I enjoyed this suspenseful novel by best-selling author Jennie Hansen. The story was engrossing, the characters likable, and the plot was gripping. I’d definitely recommend this one for your summer reading list.
(This book was published in 2004 by Covenant.)
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An Interview with Top-selling Author Jennie Hansen