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Mystery
Reverand Clare Ferguson/Russ Van Alstyne/Book 8
Minotar Books/November 5, 2013
On a frigid January night, Chief of Police Russ Van Alstyne and Reverend Clare Fergusson are called to the scene of a raging fire, that quickly becomes a double homicide and kidnapping. Which is the very last thing Russ needs...Currently he's struggling with the prospect of impending fatherhood. And his new wife is not at all happy with his proposal for their long-delayed honeymoon: a week in an unelectrified ice-fishing cabin. The vestry of St. Alban's Church has called for the bishop to investigate Clare's "unpriestly" pregnancy. She has one week to find out if she will be scolded, censured, or suspended from her duties.
Officer Hadley Knox is having a miserable January as well. Her on-again-off-again lover, Kevin Flynn, has seven days to weigh an offer from the Syracuse Police Department that might take him half a state away.
As the days and hours tick by, Russ and Clare fight personal and professional battles they've never encountered. In the course of this one tumultuous week the lives of the Millers-Kill residents have come to love and cherish change forever.
This is a series you need to start at the beginning. Not only because it is so well written but because the characters grow and change as the course of the series progresses. You wouldn't be completely lost if you start with Through the Evil Days but you would lose that sense of knowing these characters and understanding of how they think.
While Clare and Russ have not had an easy romance by any stretch of the imagination, they are finally able to settle into married life, right after a delayed honeymoon. The boundaries they set with their careers and their personal lives are very flexible so a honeymoon in a remote location should provide no interference from the outside world. As much as Russ and Clare try to enjoy their honeymoon, they are both too committed to helping others.
Russ and Clare are not the only ones whose plans are not turning out the way they hoped. Hadley Knox, single mom and California transplant, is dealing with temptation at work and her past coming back to haunt her. Hadley is not a typical cop but more or less stumbled into the job out of necessity. Kevin Flynn might not seem like a typical cop at first glance but he was meant to be a police officer. Between them they actually make a good team. I do like how their relationship is developing in both the professional and personal.
As life intrudes on Russ and Clare's honeymoon, so does mystery and danger. The pace was fairly fast mixed in with some down time but overall, the main plot and subplots, kept moving towards the culmination of good versus evil. There were a few instances of conflict between Russ and Clare that surprised me in that they came from a place I thought had already been resolved. There were certainly some very big loose ends dangling by the end of the book. I just hope we don't have to wait eighteen months for the next book.
Rating: B+
In the Bleak Midwinter
A Fountain Filled With Blood
Out of the Deep I Cry
To Darkness and to Death
All Mortal Flesh
I Shall Not Want
One Was a Soldier
Through the Evil Days
Officer Hadley Knox is having a miserable January as well. Her on-again-off-again lover, Kevin Flynn, has seven days to weigh an offer from the Syracuse Police Department that might take him half a state away.
As the days and hours tick by, Russ and Clare fight personal and professional battles they've never encountered. In the course of this one tumultuous week the lives of the Millers-Kill residents have come to love and cherish change forever.
This is a series you need to start at the beginning. Not only because it is so well written but because the characters grow and change as the course of the series progresses. You wouldn't be completely lost if you start with Through the Evil Days but you would lose that sense of knowing these characters and understanding of how they think.
While Clare and Russ have not had an easy romance by any stretch of the imagination, they are finally able to settle into married life, right after a delayed honeymoon. The boundaries they set with their careers and their personal lives are very flexible so a honeymoon in a remote location should provide no interference from the outside world. As much as Russ and Clare try to enjoy their honeymoon, they are both too committed to helping others.
Russ and Clare are not the only ones whose plans are not turning out the way they hoped. Hadley Knox, single mom and California transplant, is dealing with temptation at work and her past coming back to haunt her. Hadley is not a typical cop but more or less stumbled into the job out of necessity. Kevin Flynn might not seem like a typical cop at first glance but he was meant to be a police officer. Between them they actually make a good team. I do like how their relationship is developing in both the professional and personal.
As life intrudes on Russ and Clare's honeymoon, so does mystery and danger. The pace was fairly fast mixed in with some down time but overall, the main plot and subplots, kept moving towards the culmination of good versus evil. There were a few instances of conflict between Russ and Clare that surprised me in that they came from a place I thought had already been resolved. There were certainly some very big loose ends dangling by the end of the book. I just hope we don't have to wait eighteen months for the next book.
Rating: B+
In the Bleak Midwinter
A Fountain Filled With Blood
Out of the Deep I Cry
To Darkness and to Death
All Mortal Flesh
I Shall Not Want
One Was a Soldier
Through the Evil Days
