Review: In the bleak Midwinter by Julia Spencer-Fleming

Rev Clare Fergusson, retired Army helo pilot, sports car driver, and admitted tomboy, has only been assigned to her upstate New York parish for a week when she discovers an abandoned newborn on the church steps.  The baby has a note pinned to it asking that he be given to a couple from the church for adoption.

Russ Van Alstyne, former MP, has been Chief of Police of the small force in his hometown  since he retired from the Army 8 years ago.  He does not like the couple designated to be the adoptive parents.

When the priest and the policeman meet up, we don't see sparks fly, but the embers have been lit.  Together, they go about trying to find the parents of the baby.  The mother turns up murdered, and the plot thickens.  The Chief wants to pin it on the obnoxious attorneys named in the note, but Clare wants to see the good in everyone and refuses to believe they could have murdered a young woman just to get a baby.  She keeps galloping off on her own; he keeps having to dig her out (sometimes literally) of the messes she gets into.

This is an extremely well plotted book.  We don't really get a hint of the true murderer until close to the end.  There is action adventure (perhaps a bit too much description), the barest hint of promised romance, and characters who ring true.

When I finished reading it, I went directly to the library catalog to discover happily that there are several more in this series.  I can't wait.

edited to add a title to the post duh!!!