This month we read and discussed Julia Spencer Fleming's In the Bleak Midwinter. The group agreed that this book was a highly entertaining read. The mystery itself was well thought out and kept us in suspense, and the characters were so interesting and well developed that we felt Ms. Spencer-Fleming a real master of her trade.
Spencer-Fleming's heroine is Claire Fergusson, a newly minted Episcopal minister in the small town of Miller's Kill in upstate New York. While Claire's new role keeps her busy, she stumbles into a mystery when a baby is left on the doorstep of her parish. Soon we meet Chief Russ Van Alystyne, who quickly becomes Claire's friend and (at first reluctant) partner in crime solving. The married Van Alystyne and the chaste Claire develop an increasingly close relationship that threatens to wreak havoc on both of their lives. Between the fascinating developments in the case of the abandoned baby and the relationship between Russ and Claire, readers are left on the edge of their seats!
This is the first in the series, and I have personally gone on to the next two: A Fountain Filled with Blood and Out of the Deep I Cry. I was especially enthralled with the third book in the series, which goes back and forth in time to help unravel a new mystery and an old simultaneously. I can't wait to read the next in line, To Darkness and to Death!
-Jessi
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