Now decades later, someone else is missing in Miller's Kill, NY. This time it's the physician of the clinic that bears the Ketchem name. Suspicion falls on a volatile single mother with a grudge against the doctor, but Reverend Clare Fergusson isn't convinced. As Clare and Russ investigate, they discover that the doctor's disappearance is linked to a bloody trail going all the way back to the hardscrabble Prohibition era. As they draw ever closer to the truth, their attraction for each other grows increasingly more difficult to resist. And their search threatens to uncover secrets that snake from one generation to the next--and to someone who's ready to kill.
Comment: This is the third installment in the Clare Fergusson and Russ van Alstyne series by author Julia Spencer-Fleming. I have enjoyed the previous books, liked this one too and also convinced a friend to buddy read the rest of the series throughout the year. I hope the books remain consistently good.
In this installment the issues begin when the board decides how to go on with the improvement of the church, mainly the roof that leaks. One way to get money more quickly would be by reaching to the fund that also maintained the social clinic for many years, but soon after the person in charge informs the doctor of this, problems start to pile up, including also the disappearance of the doctor after a discussion with a woman who doesn't want to vaccinate her children. While reverend Clare finds herself in the middle of everything once more, chief Russ breaks his leg and no one seems to be able to find the missing doctor. When suspicious activities remount to events in the 20s and 30s and another missing person case, can it be there's some sort of connection between the two situations somehow?
These books are a mix of crime investigation and domestic developments on the lives of the main characters. For readers who love one but not the other, I suppose the story might feel like dragging or might seem boring in parts, but I do like the way the author mixes up the two and how it makes me think of the overall book as an almost cozy one. To me, it works as something solid, but I can understand how frustratingly slow certain situations develop.
I'd say that my enjoyment of this book wasn't higher because I had to interrupt reading many times,for one thing or another. I think if my head space had been focused on this for longer, I'd have appreciated even more. That aside, the story features a crime investigation and the links to another investigation in the 30s, when a man disappeared and his wife wanted him declared dead after the legal time. What connection the two things have besides the location and the fact the child of that couple is now in charge of the fund paying for the clinic feels too vague to matter. Of course, as the story advances, we realize, with the help of a few flashback chapters, why it mattered indeed.
Some links between the situations seem to be a little too convenient but the author does try to make things seem logical. I think the fact part of the mystery might had begun in the 1930s also helps to give the idea some information is more circumstantial than actual proof, considering the difference in method in what was not possible to use back then by the police. The case was actually interesting and there were still doubts on how things happened or why, but when the final piece of the puzzle is revealed, even after the notion a hint had been left here and there with unassuming importance, of course more about it makes sense than not. Secondary issues aside, the old mystery was actually well planned by the author.
The contemporary mystery was a bit far fetched, in my opinion. Not impossible, but the explanation for why the doctor's disappearance was too opportune for what was necessary to happen. I think it was handy the author could make things work the way they did, and I do appreciate the complex setup before the real issues took place, but a few details felt over the top. Despite this, I was happy enough with how things went, perhaps this segment was not the most intriguing, but it got the job done.
Regarding the personal connections and dynamics between the characters. Fans or readers of the previous two books, like me, probably are eager to see what happens for Russ and Clare. He is married, she is the reverend and while they can be friends, it's obvious the feelings between them are stronger than that. Ethics, morals, society all contribute for a lot of tension, a lot of longing and I think this parts is subtle enough for the reader to feel the poignancy of what's between them.
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