Saturday, December 26, 2009

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!!!

3 comments:

  1. I have about (5) books by this author on my shelf unread. I really need to try her in 2010. Glad this one was a good one as I have it :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Glad to see you enjoyed this. I recently read it myself after strong recommendations from LT friends, and I was not disappointed. I requested the 2nd one from Paperbackswap but I bet my library has them as well.

    Enjoy the series!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I am happy you liked this one too...because it is the one of her books that I own. although I have not yet read it...

    ReplyDelete

Welcome, thanks for stopping by. Now that you've heard our two cents, perhaps you have a few pennies to throw into the discussion. Due to a bunch more anonymous spam getting through, I've had to disallow anonymous comments. I try to respond to all comments posing a question, but may not always get to you right away.