Fragile Sanctuary

Fragile Sanctuary (2023) is a romantic suspense novel by Catherine Cowles and the first installment in the Sparrow Falls series. The story follows Rhodes Stirling, a young woman who returns to her hometown of Sparrow Falls, Oregon, to restore the family home where her parents and sister died in a tragic fire 14 years earlier. As the project begins, she is forced to work with Anson Hunt, a reclusive fire-restoration expert with his own traumatic past. When a series of threatening events suggests that the fire was no accident, Rhodes and Anson must confront their histories to uncover a hidden enemy. The novel explores themes including Finding Sanctuary in Chosen Family, Confronting the Traumas of the Past, and The Deceptive Nature of Appearances.

Catherine Cowles is a USA Today bestselling author known for creating interconnected, small-town romance series. Her interest in true crime podcasts informs the suspenseful plots that are a hallmark of her work. Set in her home state of Oregon, Fragile Sanctuary establishes the world of Sparrow Falls and introduces the Colson clan, a central “found family” whose members are the focus of subsequent books in the series. Cowles’s novels, including several in her Tattered & Torn and Sutter Lake series, have been recognized as finalists in the Goodreads Choice Awards for Romance, reflecting her popularity with readers.

This guide is based on the 2024 Sourcebooks Casablanca print edition.

Content Warning: The source text and this guide contain depictions of graphic violence, sexual content, cursing, illness or death, and mental illness.

Plot Summary

The narrative begins with a flashback to when the protagonist, Rhodes, is 13. She attends her first boy-girl party with her best friend, Fallon Colson, and shares her first kiss with a boy named Felix Hernandez during a game of “seven minutes in heaven.” Later that night, after returning to her family’s large Victorian home in Sparrow Falls, Oregon, Rhodes wakes to find the house engulfed in flames. Trapped in her second-story bedroom, she attempts to escape by climbing down a drainpipe but is thrown to the ground when a window explodes, leaving her severely injured and unconscious.

Fourteen years later, Rhodes, now 27, returns to restore the half-burned ruins of her family home, a project managed by her adoptive brother Shepard (Shep) Colson’s construction company. The fire, officially ruled accidental due to frayed wiring in an antique lamp, killed her parents and her younger sister, Emilia. The trauma of the event causes Rhodes to suffer from severe panic attacks, and she inherited the burned Victorian, she has avoided the property for years to keep these attacks at bay. After the fire, Rhodes was taken in by her best friend Fallon’s mother, Nora Colson, becoming an integral part of the large, patchwork Colson family. She now oversees the restoration of the Victorian while living in the property’s guesthouse.

The perspective shifts to Anson Hunt, a former FBI profiler who is haunted by the long-ago murder of his sister, Greta. He now works for Shep, his college friend, as a fire-restoration expert, hiding from his past. Shep sends Anson to the Victorian to review the project plans.

Rhodes explores the dilapidated main house alone, against Shep’s warnings. Anson arrives and mistakes her for a trespasser, startling her and causing her to fall from a damaged staircase. He catches her, preventing serious injury, but their first interaction is hostile, as he scolds her for recklessly entering the condemned house. Shep arrives and formally introduces them. Rhodes’s attempts to befriend the grumpy and solitary Anson are rudely rebuffed. Later, Anson has a vivid flashback about discovering his sister’s body, revealing the depth of his trauma.

As the restoration begins, Rhodes fosters a dog named Biscuit who is fearful of men. Anson shows a surprisingly gentle side, using his knowledge of animal training to help calm the dog. Soon after, a new threat emerges when someone leaves a charred photograph of Rhodes’s family on her porch, triggering a severe panic attack. Anson finds her and comforts her, learning for the first time about the fire that killed her family. His suspicions aroused, Anson researches old news articles and discovers a series of unsolved arsons that occurred in Sparrow Falls around the time of the original fire, all in places Rhodes frequented. The threat escalates when a second fire is deliberately set at the Victorian. While investigating, Anson finds a stack of newspaper clippings about the first fire hidden in a library cabinet, with a threatening message written on one: “MAYBE YOU DIDN’T DESERVE TO SURVIVE” (151).

Concerned for her safety, Anson begins staying on Rhodes’s couch. They bond over their shared experiences with grief and trauma, and their intense mutual attraction culminates in a physical encounter. Their developing relationship is complicated when a black SUV runs Rhodes off the road, causing an accident that leaves her with a concussion. Anson reveals his past as an FBI profiler, explaining that his obsessive hunt for a serial killer known as The Hangman led the killer to target and murder his sister, Greta. Rhodes is initially hurt that Anson kept this secret from her, but they soon reconcile, and their bond deepens significantly after this confession. Shortly after, Anson receives a call from his former FBI team, who inform him that The Hangman is active again and appears to be heading toward Oregon.

The local threats continue when Rhodes’s possessive ex-boyfriend, Davis, is found murdered. Later, Biscuit alerts Rhodes and Anson to a prowler outside the guesthouse. Anson gives chase and confronts the man, who is revealed to be Felix Hernandez. Anson subdues him, and Felix is taken into custody, leading the characters to initially believe he is the stalker. The next day, however, the deputy assigned to guard Rhodes is murdered, and Rhodes is kidnapped. Anson discovers a note left behind by The Hangman, revealing that the serial killer has Rhodes and has been her stalker all along. The investigation, now a joint effort between the sheriff’s department and the FBI, quickly identifies Silas Arnett, a member of Shep’s construction crew and a childhood acquaintance of Rhodes, as the prime suspect.

Rhodes awakens in the burned-out shell of a remote cabin and is confronted by Silas. He confesses to everything: Driven by a twisted obsession, he set the fire that killed her family 14 years ago. He is also The Hangman, and his victims have all been women who reminded him of Rhodes. He admits to murdering Davis for insulting her and manipulating Felix into thinking Anson was a threat to Rhodes.

Anson, Trace, and the FBI track Silas to the cabin. During a tense standoff, Silas holds Rhodes at knifepoint. As he pulls her backward, the unstable floor of the burned structure collapses, and they both plummet into the basement. Anson and Trace rappel down to find Silas dead from a broken neck. Rhodes is alive but critically injured. She recovers in the hospital, where the full extent of Silas’s crimes is revealed. Trophies from his victims are found in his apartment, and the bodies of his mother and sister, whom he also murdered, are discovered buried on his family’s property.

Six months later, the Victorian house is fully restored. Anson surprises Rhodes with loving details that honor her family, including sourcing the original, discontinued fairy wallpaper her mother had chosen for the entryway. In the new library, which is filled with photos of both her families, Anson proposes to Rhodes with a ring hidden inside a copy of A Wrinkle in Time, a book she once read with her father. Rhodes accepts, and they embrace their new beginning in the home that has become their shared sanctuary.