Mystery of the Silver Coins by Lois Walfrid-Johnson (2003, Paperback)

Spoiler alert! This book continues the Viking Quest saga, which is full of adventure and lessons in faith. Bree and Devin learn about forgiveness and to realize the fact that God's will is sometimes different than our own. At one point the gospel is presented, but the author never preaches to the reader. It's a great series, but only read on if you're interested in knowing more of the working out of the plot.

In this, the second of the Viking Quest series, Bree has escaped from her Viking captors, along with a Lil, an eight year old girl. Bree works out a disguise to protect her as she fishes for the food they need, and she is careful to hide her tracks to the girls' hiding place. As they trek across the mountains, they are confidant of escaping from the island, and back home to Ireland.

Bree discovered that Mikkel, her captor, was not only interested in recovering the two girls for their value as slaves, but he also believed that she had stolen a bag of silver coins. The penalty for this theft was death, although it seemed perfectly fine to the Vikings to have stolen the coins from the Irish (We find later in the book that the coins were actually stolen from a Norseman living in Ireland).

Meanwhile, Bree's brother Devin is also heading home, from the other side of Ireland where he was left by the Vikings. He nurses his hate for the Vikings, making a bitter enemy of one who had followed him. On his journey he comes to Dublin, and meets a Viking who was a friend of his own father. Devin comes to understand that he must surrender his hate, and learn to forgive.

Forgiveness was not a lesson Bree had yet learned, however. Lil became very sick on the mountains, and they stopped their journey over the island to wait for her recovery. She told Bree she was not afraid to die, and explained why she was lonely for heaven, giving the plan of salvation. Just after Lil's fever broke, however, the girls were discovered by Mikkel. He had decided to search for them himself, fearing that his guards might harm them if they found the girls first. Bitterness and anger filled Bree, especially when she heard that Mikkel had prayed, not only to Thor, but to the Christian God, her God, for help in finding the girls. How could God help him? Didn't God want them to escape? How could she be a light to the nations in captivity?

To clear her name, as well as to save her life, Bree set her mind to identify the real thief of the silver coins. Hints were dropped through the book, but you may be surprised to find out who he really was! His resentment at being detected turns into anger toward Bree.

The book concludes with Devin back home with his family, and Bree's arrival at Mikkel's home, where she is to be his mother's new slave. She thinks she has seen her long lost sister, but that, as well as all the other unfinished threads, is left for other books.