Hid from Our Eyes

December 15, 2019
The ninth case for Millers Kill Police Chief Russell Van Alstyne and his wife, Rev. Clare Fergusson, is actually three cases that span more than 60 years. A young woman in a party dress is found dead out in the middle of McEachron Hill Road. Though there's not a mark on her, everyone on the Millers Kill force instantly suspects murder because that's the same spot where two similarly dressed women were found dead in 1952 and 1972. Neither earlier case was ever solved. In fact, the closest thing to a suspect in the 1972 case was Russ Van Alstyne, having some serious readjustment issues after his tour in Vietnam. Being on the other side of the investigation doesn't feel any more comfortable for Russ, who's already struggling to help Clare cope with Ethan, their infant son; manage the absence of Officer Kevin Flynn, whose new job with the Syracuse Police Department involves some undercover work uncomfortably close to his former hometown; and face down the continuing threat to shut down his department and leave the New York State Police responsible for Millers Kill's impressive slate of homicides (Through the Evil Days, 2013, etc.). For her part, Clare is pressed to welcome a new intern, Joni Langevoort, a seminary student from Manhattan who turns out to be transgender. Though Joni's mother is warmly supportive of her daughter's transition, just the proximity of the family's wealth and power will ring alarm bells for fans of the series who join Russ and his fragile department in wondering whether they're dealing with copycat crimes or no crimes at all--or whether the same person really could have murdered all three of those young women between 1952 and the present. The narrative hopscotches nimbly but not very revealingly among the three time periods right through the unsatisfying, early-arriving solution, which doesn't slow down the continuing complications in all three time frames that reveal where the author's heart really lies. As ambitious as Spencer-Fleming's best as long as you don't expect a tidy whodunit.

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Starred review from January 6, 2020
It’s the summer of 1972, and the body of a well-dressed young woman turns up in the middle of a remote Adirondacks road, in bestseller Spencer-Fleming’s stellar ninth mystery featuring Episcopal priest Clare Fergusson and her husband, Millers Kill, N.Y., police chief Russ Van Alystyne (after 2013’s Through the Evil Days). The case goes cold, just as in a 1952 homicide, but the stakes rise when a second contemporary murder scene is eerily familiar to Russ, the lead suspect in the unsolved 1952 crime. As Russ struggles to solve the new murders, local politicians are campaigning to disband the understaffed police department for budgetary purposes and rely on the state police instead. Even home offers little refuge for Russ as he and his wife, Clare, struggle with their new parental responsibilities and the ever-present concern of Clare’s fragile sobriety. Spencer-Fleming combines a first-rate mystery with flawed but endearing characters. Readers will hope they won’t have to wait another seven years for the next installment. Author tour. Agent: Meg Ruley, Jane Rotrosen Agency.

March 1, 2020
Cold-case mysteries resurface when a young woman's body is dumped in Millers Kill, New York. Like two women found in 1952 and 1972, the victim's body bears no evidence of her cause of death. Now MKPD chief Russ van Alstyne must solve all three cases or lend ammunition to the upcoming referendum to dissolve the police department in favor of a budget-friendly state-police contract. The outlook dims further when the department is blindsided by a misconduct lawsuit and rumors circulate about Russ' involvement in the 1972 cold case. While Russ' detectives chase uncertain leads at the annual fair and dig into connections to a 1970s commune, his wife, Clare Fergusson, Millers Kill's Episcopal priest, takes on a new intern, who offers her powerful family's backing for the Save the Police campaign and a disturbing new angle on the murders. Series fans have had a long wait to dive back into Spencer-Fleming's cleverly constructed mysteries, and this ninth entry (following Through the Evil Days, 2013), which delivers a haunting exposure of the town's dark side, won't disappoint.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)

November 1, 2019

When Millers Kill Police Chief Russ Van Alstyne fields a 911 call about a young woman in a fancy party dress found dead, it brings back memories of being accused of a similar murder in the 1970s when he was a young Vietnam War veteran. Back then, the police chief in charge recalls a similar case he investigated as a trooper in the 1950s. Enter Rev. Clare Fergusson, priest at St. Alban's Church and Russ's wife, who must juggle caring for their new baby with helping Russ solve this case. Ninth in the Anthony, Agatha, and Macavity Award-winning mystery series.

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