Destiny Springs

The action and suspense are intense from the very beginning in Destiny Springs, the concluding volume in Elliott Foster’s trilogy featuring struggling artist Corey Flanagan as he attempts to forge a new life for himself following trauma, betrayal, and some very bad decisions. Indeed, the thrill-a-minute pace of the story is clear from the outset, as the delightfully deranged Cecelia Jackson, the wife of a trucker who Corey killed, continues her relentless and merciless pursuit of him in order to avenge her husband’s death.

Having previously been unaware of Cecelia’s quest for a warped sense of justice, Corey has been enjoying the relative peace of his fresh start in California with his new boyfriend, Miguel. However, what should have been a perfect romantic moment quickly turns into a disaster when Cecelia makes her move against the pair, causing critical injury and leaving Corey with no choice but to contemplate the myriad events from his past that set him and those closest to him on a collision course with a deranged psychopath.

From this point onwards, Destiny Springs is a suspenseful and often shocking tale of the cat-and-mouse pursuit between Cecelia and Corey, with her being willing to do whatever it takes to extract vengeance and him being forced to flee across state lines and seek refuge with family, friends, and a past love.

The death of her husband has clearly broken Cecelia mentally, leaving her blinded by bloodlust and plagued by the belief that his ghost is haunting her, encouraging her to kill Corey in the most violent way possible. In addition, as she stalks Corey in her Chevy Malibu, she has the urn containing her husband’s ashes strapped into the seat next to her. It’s all very disturbing, but Foster does a great job of both highlighting her dangerous derangement and evoking a slight degree of pity for her brokenness.

For his part, Corey is yet again left with a seemingly insurmountable level of pain and trauma to process, although the extreme need to escape Cecelia means that he has little time to actually do so. He’s fortunate to have support from his mother Ginny, his best friend Billy, his former lawyer Rebecca, and even his ex-boyfriend Nick, but these connections bring problems of their own and he ends up learning various secrets from the past that further upend his sense of security and belonging. While Corey can’t really be described as a hero, Foster certainly succeeds in making him sympathetic.

Although Destiny Springs can be read as a stand-alone story, readers would really benefit for first reading the two previous books in the trilogy—Panic River and Reckoning Waves—as there is a lot of backstory to understand in order to fully comprehend the motivations of the various characters. Still, even on its own, Destiny Springs is an action-packed, fast-paced, and shock-filled story that is sure to both surprise and entertain.