Favorite Author: Julia Spencer-Fleming

Julia Spencer-Fleming published In the Bleak Midwinter, the first book in her Clare Fergusson series, in 2002. Fergusson is a former army pilot, now Episcopalian priest and the first female priest at St. Albans in the small Adirondack town of Millers Kill. (Kill is the old Dutch word for river, but it sounds spooky, doesn't it?)

Now up to eight books with another due in 2020, the series is called the Clare Fergusson and Russ Van Alstyne series, as Clare’s police chief love interest gets double billing. Electricity sparked between pastor and cop from the get go. While Episcopalian priests can date and marry, they are definitely not supposed to date married men, especially high profile citizens like the police chief. The development of their relationship is one of the best parts of the series.

Spencer-Fleming has won several awards for her books and was nominated at least once for the coveted Edgar. She deserves the acclaim. This is one of the best-written, most intelligent mystery series going. The plots are creative and intricate. The pacing is solid, with exciting scenes that are actually exciting. The characters are complex -- Fergusson is one of the most interesting sleuths out solving mysteries. Spencer-Fleming does a masterful job of having Clare maintain her spiritual role while wrestling with human issues.

A big difficulty with amateur sleuth series is how to get the amateur sleuth involved in so many murder investigations. Spencer-Fleming handles this well, usually by having Fergusson face a minor problem in the beginning -- something a small town priest could believably have to deal with -- and then only throwing in the dead body after Fergusson is well involved. There are enough "stay out of this; I told you to wait in the car" conversations with Van Alstyne as necessary, but not annoyingly many.

I've read the first seven. All the titles are the names of hymns:

In the Bleak Midwinter (2002)

A Fountain Filled With Blood (2003)

Out of the Deep I Cry (2004)

To Darkness and to Death (2005) (reviewed here)

All Mortal Flesh (2007) (reviewed here)

I Shall Not Want (2008)

One Was a Soldier (2011) (reviewed here)

Through the Evil Days (2013)

Hid from Our Eyes (2020 - available for pre-order only)

NOTES

Last updated on September 2, 2019.

OTHER FANS

If you have reviews of Julia Spencer-Fleming's books, or other posts about this author, and would like them listed here, please leave comments with a links and I will add them here.

Favorite Author: Julia Spencer-Fleming

Julia Spencer-Fleming writes a series of mystery novels featuring a former army pilot, now Episcopalian priest, Clare Fergusson. Fergusson is the first female priest at St. Albans, the Episcopal church in the small Adirondack town of Millers Kill (as in the old Dutch word for river, but it sounds spooky, doesn't it?).

Spencer-Fleming has one several awards for her books and was nominated at least once for the coveted Edgar. She deserves the acclaim. This is one of the best-written, most intelligent mystery series going. The plots are creative and intricate. The pacing is solid, with exciting scenes that are actually exciting. The characters are complex -- Fergusson in particular is one of the most interesting sleuths out solving mysteries. Spencer-Fleming does a masterful job of having Fergusson maintain her spiritual role while wrestling with human issues.

The biggest of these human issues is the town's police chief, Russ Van Alstyne. Electricity sparks between pastor and cop from the get go. And while Episcopalian priests can date and marry, they are definitely not supposed to date married men, especially high profile citizens like the police chief. The sexual tension between the two is absolutely believable.

So too are the stories. One of the most difficult aspects of amateur sleuth series is how to get the amateur sleuth involved in solving so many murders. Spencer-Fleming handles this well, usually by having Fergusson face a minor mystery in the beginning -- something a small town priest could believably have to deal with -- and then only throwing in the dead body after Fergusson is well involved. There are still several "stay out of this; I told you to wait in the car" conversations with Van Alstyne, but they do not become a constant refrain.

There are seven books in the series and I've read them all. Hopefully there will be many more.

All the titles are the names of hymns:

In the Bleak Midwinter (2002)

A Fountain Filled With Blood (2003)

Out of the Deep I Cry (2004)

To Darkness and to Death (2005) (reviewed here)

All Mortal Flesh (2007) (reviewed here)

I Shall Not Want (2008)

One Was a Soldier (2011) (reviewed here)

NOTES

Last updated on April 19, 2012.

OTHER FANS

If you have reviews of Julia Spencer-Fleming's books, or other posts about this author, and would like them listed here, please leave comments with a links and I will add them here.

Review: One Was a Soldier by Julia Spencer-Fleming

Julia Spencer-Fleming always finds a new, clever way to pull Clare Fergusson into a murder mystery, which she must, since Episcopal priests in small Adirondacks towns don't usually come across dead bodies in the course of their day.

In One Was a Soldier, the latest in Spencer-Fleming's series featuring Fergusson and her love-interest, Police Chief Russ Van Alstyne, the mystery unfolds slowly, with the first dead body not showing up until quite late in the game. As always, Spencer-Fleming takes her time building a multi-layered story that is as much about the characters as it is the mystery they solve.

The story opens with Fergusson, a former Army helicopter pilot, returning from her tour of duty in Iraq, having signed up for the National Guard in the last book, I Shall Not Want. While she tries to hide it, Fergusson is wrestling with war demons and self-medicating.  She eventually gets involved with a veterans support group, but when one of their own ends up dead, Fergusson rallies the group to try to prove it was murder, not suicide.

This is one of the best mystery series going, with a large cast of recurring characters, intricate storylines, believable and interesting relationships, and plenty of action.

OTHER REVIEWS

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NOTES

I got my copy of One Was a Soldier from the LibraryThing Early Reviewer program.

Teaser Tuesday: One Was a Soldier

Clare downed half the contents in one swallow.  "Whoa, easy there Major."

-- One Was a Soldier by Julia Spencer-Fleming.  This is the latest in her series featuring the Rev. Clare Fergusson, an Episcopalian priest in Millers Kill, New York, and her Chief of Police boyfriend, Russ Van Alstyne.

This story picks up when Clare gets back from a tour of duty in Iraq with the National Guard (she was an Army helicopter pilot before become a priest). She's wrestling with demons and self-medicating.  Good thing she signed up for a veterans' support group.  Bad thing they start dying off . . .

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.

Review: All Mortal Flesh by Julia Spencer-Fleming

All Mortal Flesh is the fifth novel in Julia Spencer-Fleming’s mystery series featuring Clare Fergusson, an Episcopalian priest and former Army helicopter pilot in the Adirondack town of Miller’s Kill, New York.

This is the best of the series so far, as Fergusson and her love interest – the married Chief of Police, Russ van Alstyne — find themselves solving a murder mystery one step ahead of those who think they are the most likely suspects. With All Mortal Flesh, Spencer-Fleming abandoned the 24-hour format she experimented with in the prior book, To Darkness and to Death (reviewed here), returning to a standard murder-solving timeframe that allowed her to develop the plot and the characters more thoroughly.

Both the mystery and the personal side of the story are spritely and satisfying, right up to the exciting finale.

Spencer-Fleming is doing a terrific job with this series. So far, she has come up with plausible enough circumstances in each book to get Fergusson involved in solving the mystery – a difficult task with any “amateur sleuth,” but particularly tricky when the sleuth is a priest. Also, she is building up a solid cast of supporting characters that bring depth to the series. Finally, she is remarkably adept at stretching out the relationship between Fergusson and van Alstyne, maintaining the sexual crackle between them, always moving the relationship forward, but never – so far – bringing them together.

There are two more books in the series. Hopefully Spencer-Fleming has more in the works.

OTHER REVIEWS

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Review: To Darkness and to Death by Julia Spencer-Fleming

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Julia Spencer-Fleming’s To Darkness and to Death is the fourth novel in her top-rate mystery series featuring priest-sleuth Clare Fergusson. As with the prior three installments, Clare’s vocation as the priest at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church in Millers Kill, New York shapes her character but not the plot.

Here, Clare gets involved in the disappearance of a young woman, not because Clare is a priest, but because she is called in as one of the volunteers on the search and rescue team. Unlike the earlier books, Fleming experiments in this one with a 24-hour format. The action starts with a pre-dawn phone call summoning the search team to look for the missing Millie van der Hoeven, local heiress and co-owner of a 250,000 acre parcel of Adirondack forest. Things take off from there, with lots of moving pieces, including multiple kidnappings, assault, cover-ups, blackmail, shady dealings, murder and mayhem.

Throughout, the romantic current between Clare and the married Chief of Police, Russ van Alstyne, still hums. Probably because of the 24-hour format, the two do not spend a lot of time together on the pages, but they are always aware of each other and their relationship makes a significant step forward before the story wraps up.

This is more thriller than who-dun-it, with the pieces ultimately falling into place – or at least coming to rest – in a pretty exciting finale. For those who prefer analysis to action, clues to chaos, this lack of actual mystery solving will be a let down after the prior books. But it is still an engaging story and Spencer-Fleming is a gifted writer.

She has a good thing going with this series, which she describes as “novels of faith and murder for readers of literary suspense.” "Faith and murder" -- you've got to love that combination!

OTHER REVIEWS

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