About This Episode

When the Silence Breaks: Elizabeth Goddard Launches Her Gripping New Mercy Ridge Series

Elizabeth Goddard is back on the LiteraryScape Podcast, and she brought something special. Her newest release, When the Silence Breaks, kicks off a brand-new romantic suspense series called Mercy Ridge. Fans of Christian romantic suspense will want to hear how this story came to life.

How a Magazine Article Sparked the Mercy Ridge Series

The idea started in an unlikely place. Elizabeth was reading a regional magazine about the Cascade Mountains in Washington state. One article covered Mission Ridge Ski Resort and its surprising history. A World War II bomber crashed nearby decades ago, and part of that plane’s wing is still on display at the resort today. That single detail sparked a question in Elizabeth’s mind. What if the bomber had carried a deadly payload, and nobody ever knew it crashed? From there, an entire series was born. She renamed the fictional town Mercy Ridge and added a nearby volcano for extra tension, then began building a story around secrets buried in the mountains.

The Story Behind When the Silence Breaks

This first book follows Sarah Ellison, a former CIA agent readers may recognize from Elizabeth’s earlier novel, Cold-Blooded Case. Sarah wants answers about her brother’s murder, and every clue points to a mountain. Officials insist the plane crashed in the ocean decades earlier, but Sarah isn’t convinced. So she hires Ryder Goodwin, a former Navy SEAL and wilderness guide, to help her search the slopes herself. Between the climb, the danger, and the rumbling mountain beneath them, the pair uncovers far more than they expected.

Volcanoes, Coastlines, and Elizabeth’s Love of Setting

Setting plays a huge role in every Elizabeth Goddard novel. She lives near several volcanoes in Washington, including Mount Rainier and Mount St. Helens, and that landscape shaped Mercy Ridge in a personal way. According to Elizabeth, she wants her settings to reflect God’s creation, so the atmosphere always feels alive. Her previous series, Hidden Bay, leaned into crashing coastal waves instead. Meanwhile, readers can expect the volcano’s presence to grow throughout the Mercy Ridge trilogy, with the biggest eruption of tension arriving in book three.

A Pantster’s Approach to Writing Romantic Suspense

Curious how Elizabeth builds her characters? She doesn’t outline. Instead, she discovers who her characters are while writing them, often changing a name midway through a draft if it doesn’t feel right. Her rough draft usually lands around 50,000 words, and she then builds it up to a polished 85,000. Editing, she says, takes just as long as writing the first draft. Additionally, research plays a bigger role than most readers realize. For this book, Elizabeth dug into volcanic activity and the early history of the CIA, blending real history with fiction the way she loves.

What Makes a Romance Satisfying

When asked what she looks for in a great romance, Elizabeth pointed to chemistry first. Without it, a story falls flat no matter how good the plot is. Sacrifice matters too, and she still remembers staying up until 3:30 a.m. rereading a favorite novel’s ending because the hero’s sacrifice moved her so deeply. Above all, she hopes readers close her books feeling hopeful. Redemption threads through everything she writes, and she wants that feeling to linger long after the last page.

Where to Find Elizabeth Goddard

Readers can explore Elizabeth’s full catalog, including the Hidden Bay and Missing Alaska series, at elizabethgoddard.com. Her newsletter also includes a free full-length book, Collision Course, for anyone who signs up. Subsequently, When the Silence Breaks releases in August, and the Mercy Ridge series will only grow from here, with book three already underway and a future series called Blue Mountain Justice on the horizon.

Listen to the full conversation, including Elizabeth’s rapid-fire answers about casting, coffee, and her hidden desk chocolate stash, on the LiteraryScape Podcast.

Listen to the episode: www.literaryscape.com/podcast/whenthesilencebreaks

Visit Elizabeth Goddard’s website