One Was a Soldier

February 28, 2011
Adjusting to civilian life after a tour in Iraq proves difficult for Rev. Clare Fergusson in Spencer-Fleming's resonant and timely seventh mystery featuring Clare and her not-so-secret lover, police chief Russ Van Alstyne (after 2008's I Shall Not Want). On returning to Millers Kill, N.Y., Clare jumps right back into her duties as priest of St. Alban's Episcopalian Church. But her 18 months flying helicopters in Iraq aren't entirely in the past: she's drinking more and relying on a mix of leftover pills from her Army medical kit. Along with several other returning service members, Clare joins a community support group for veterans. When a member of the group, Tally McNab, apparently shoots herself in the mouth and falls dead into her swimming pool, Clare spearheads an investigation, hounding Russ to consider homicide. Clare and Russ's relationship deepens, while the focus on the struggles of veterans supplies another strong emotional thread. Author tour; 75,000 first printing.

January 1, 2011

The good news is that Rev. Clare Fergusson has come home from her Mideastern deployment as Maj. Fergusson to a marriage proposal from Millers Kill Police Chief Russ Van Alstyne. But that's about the extent of the good news.

Despite its high murder rate (I Shall Not Want, 2008, etc.), Millers Kill, NY, is a small town, so it's not surprising that everyone in the therapy group clinician Sarah Dowling runs for returning veterans knows everyone else. But Clare Fergusson, orthopedist Trip Stillman, double amputee Will Ellis, bookkeeper Tally McNabb and MP Eric McCrea, who's returning to the civilian police force, can't imagine how closely and painfully their lives will become tangled over the coming months. The news that Trip's sister Ellen Bain, who works at millionaire John Opperman's Algonquin Waters Resort, has been killed in a car accident that also provokes the premature birth of Chris Stoner's baby Zachary while his father's between tours of Afghanistan, is only the curtain-raiser to a darker immersion in massive fraud, corruption and murder. It's obvious to everyone but Clare and Russ who the guilty party is. The author is less interested in fixing individual guilt, however, than in exploring the inescapable legacies of soldiers come home—including a crushing burden of imagined, and unimaginable, guilt.

Spencer-Fleming's most ambitious book yet—think The Best Years of Our Lives with corpses—can't quite live up to its lofty goals. But fans will continue to be impressed by her resourceful determination never to tell the same story twice.

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

Starred review from January 1, 2011

Clare Fergusson comes home from Iraq to Millers Kill, NY, a damaged version of herself. She must now reconcile her combat experiences with her other job as an Episcopal priest. When a fellow veteran in her therapy group is killed and the death ruled a suicide, Clare sets off to uncover the truth. In her latest mystery (after I Shall Not Want), the award-winning Spencer-Fleming calls attention to the stress, nightmares, anger, and guilt many military personnel experience on their return to civilian life. VERDICT In the hands of a lesser writer, this novel would not fly, but Spencer-Fleming carries it off and concludes with a believable resolution. As always, there is a cliffhanger ending for Clare. Outstanding. [75,000-copy first printing; see Prepub Mystery, LJ 7/10.]

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from February 1, 2011
Reunited after 18 months, Episcopalian priest Clare Fergusson and police chief Russ Van Alstyne seek a future together. But Clares extended tour as a National Guard helicopter pilot in Iraq has left her needing booze and pills to get through the night, a dependence shes unable to admit even in her counseling group of Iraq veterans that includes a teenage double amputee, a cop with anger issues, a doctor with short-term memory loss, and a bookkeeper, Tally McNabb, whos soon found shot to death. Unable to accept Tallys death as a suicide even after shes found to have engineered a million-dollar theft from the army, Clare prods the group to a much bigger discovery. As in her previous novel, I Shall Not Want (2008), Spencer-Fleming explores a serious societal issuethe reentry problems of soldiers home from combatthat extends even to small-town Millers Kill, New York, while concocting an absolutely irresistible combination of crime fiction and romance. Despite some potentially confusing play with chronology early on, this is a surefire winner, taking the linchpin FergussonVan Alstyne relationship to a new level, probing the personal lives of other members of the towns police department, and personalizing the toll taken by war. Spencer-Flemings fans who have been waiting anxiously for her latest wont be disappointed; this series, as intelligent as it is enthralling, just keeps getting better.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)