Amnesia leads to love and a drug cartel mystery

The chances I would select two books in a row with the same title are pretty slim, but that’s just what I did. This week’s book was “Lost and Found” by Clair Poulson, and it is nothing like the previous “Lost and Found” I reviewed by Amy Shojai.

The story opens with a young woman on horseback desperately trying to elude a man on a four-wheeler. She knows that he’s stone cold killer who’s there to kill her for what she knows about his boss.

The big horse is tiring, but they can reach the highway and other people the woman feels she’ll be safe. As she nears the road, the horse stumbles then regains his footing, but the jolt has torn the woman from the saddle and left one foot caught in the stirrup. The horse runs on dragging her, like a rag doll. She is saved by two young men driving a semi.

The scene then switches to the local hospital. As the young woman wakes up to see two strangers standing near her bed. They introduce themselves and tell her all about how they stopped her runaway horse and saved her life, but all she can do is wonder “What horse?” and most of all “Who am I?” Her memory is completely gone and her purse, truck, and trailer have disappeared.

Months later, a young woman calling herself Coleen Whitman arrives in Duchesne, Utah. During a quick stop, she notices Luke Osborne and his horses. They chat briefly and he offers to let her exercise one of the horses. Time gets away, she misses her bus and Luke helps her get a job at a local restaurant. She knows she can only work a couple weeks before she must produce a social security number that she does not have. Then she’ll hit the road again.

While at work, she learns that Luke is a Duchesne Sheriff’s Department detective, widowed and has a five-year-old son. Luke is the area’s most eligible bachelor and Bianca, one of the women in the sheriff’s office has a huge crush on him. Luke has to admit that he is intrigued by Coleen, but since she isn’t Mormon, the relationship can’t go anywhere.

Eventually, Coleen shares the truth about her identity so he decides to help her find out who she really is. As they research, her pursuer uses a fake FBI badge to put out a warrant on her for a whole list of crimes. Naturally, everyone believes she’s guilty, and soon her pursuer has her in his sights again, and that man will do anything to eliminate her.

As with any mystery, this one holds several other back stories that flesh out the other characters, but there just isn’t space here to share them. So I’ll wrap up this by saying that the author has made it clear that this is a book about redemption and it has a strong Mormon view on how life should be.

Coleen learns her real identity and is safely hidden in Ohio, but she still can’t recall anything before waking in the hospital. The pursuer tries to use Luke’s son as leverage, but Bianca and Luke foil his plans. His capture takes down a widely networked drug cartel.

It also brings up the final question of whether there can be a relationship between Luke and Colleen. This was written by a man, but it’s still a romance at heart so the answer is obvious.

AT A GLANCE
BOOK: “Lost and Found”
AUTHOR: Clair Poulson
PUBLISHER: Covenant Communications
PUBLISHED: June 24, 2011
PAGES: 280