Julia Spencer-Fleming - At Midnight Comes the Cry

It’s Christmas time in Millers Kill, and Reverend Clare Fergusson and her husband Russ van Alstyne - newly resigned from his position as chief of police – plan to enjoy it with their baby boy. On their visiting Santa, decorating the tree, and attending the church Christmas pageant. But when a beloved holiday parade is crashed by white supremacists, Clare and Russ find themselves sucked into a parallel world of militias, machinations and murder.
Meanwhile, single mom and officer Hadley Knox has her hands full juggling her kids and her police work. She doesn’t want to worry about her former partner – and sometimes lover – Kevin Flynn, but when he takes leave from the Syracuse PD and disappears, she can’t help her growing panic that something has gone very wrong.
Novice lawyer Joy Zhào is keeping secrets from her superiors at the state Attorney General’s Office. She knows they wouldn’t condone her off-the-books investigation, but she’s convinced a threatening alt-right conspiracy is brewing – and catching the perpetrators could jump start her career.
NYS Forest Ranger Paul Terrance is looking for his uncle, a veteran of the park service gone inexplicably missing. He doesn’t think much of an ex-cop and out-of-town officer showing up in his patch of the woods, but he’s heard the disturbing rumors of dangerous men in the mountains.
In New York Times Julia Spencer-Fleming's latest novel, as Christmas approaches, these five people will discover their suspicions hang on a single twisting thread, leading to the forbidding High Peaks of the Adirondacks. As the
December days shorten and the nights grow long, a disparate group of would-be heroes need to unwind a murderous plot before time runs out.

Comment: This is installment #10 in the series featuring reverend Clare Fergusson and Russ Van Alstyne. The series focus on a mystery investigation per book but there is an ongoing plot related to the characters personal lives, which means this is best read in order, and there will certainly be inevitable some spoilers if one has not read the previous books.

In this book, following the events of the previous one, Russ and Clare are getting ready for Christmas with their baby Ethan, and they decide to attend a parade. Things don't go as they imagined, however, since a group of white supremacist try to cause havoc and, in the middle of everything, Clare finds herself interacting with Megan, the wife of one of the rioters. One thing leads to the next and this woman invites Clare and Russ for a barbecue, which Clare accepts trying to see how far these supremacists have gone in their attempt to organize something bigger.

At the same time, Hadley and Russ decide to look for Kevin, their fellow police officer who seems to have been missing for a while. When they realize what Kevin is doing and where, it feels as if the world is indeed quite small, but can they all find a way to prevent a terrible crime?

Well, I was not expecting the plot of this book to focus on this particular theme, considering what the real world is going through, but it was certainly quite a provocative idea and, as always, the author provides food for thought in making us realize that there is an explanation for everything, even obviously wrong opinions/attitudes.

To me, the beauty of these books has been the development of the characters' personal lives and their interactions with one another. Clare and Russ seem to be quite in sync here and I'm glad to say they seem happy and stable and just glad to be having time with their child. It is a comforting idea to see them at ease and doing things that millions of people do everyday too. I also liked seeing them interacting with their friends and even with this new weird couple they met. Of course, Clare doesn't have it easy trying to change their minds...

I also liked the sub plot of Russ and Hadley looking for Kevin. I have always loved Kevin, he is a sweetheart and I felt very invested in learning what had happened to him and if he was alright. It was also rewarding to see how deeply Hadley felt she needed to do something, which only validates that she and Kevin have something stronger than they imagined. I liked how this book ended for them, and the promise of what could be in their future.

The author also introduced two new characters, whom I liked quite a lot. Lawyer Joy Zhao and forest ranger Paul Terrence added an interesting layer to this story, mainly because they are not white, and this obviously played a role to contrast to the supremacist content. I liked these two, they were quite competent - well, Joy is a young lawyer, just starting - and they did plenty to help the others advance their search and investigations. I can't tell if the author plans on writing more and, if so, these two will be in future books due to the geographic proximity to Millers Kill, kind of, but I would love to see them again, especially considering the hint left at the end of their last scene on the page.

As for the white supremacists plot, it went into a very recognizable path, but thankfully nothing tragic happened. To be honest, there were some moments, especially when the good guys were trying to get an idea of what the supremacists were doing, that felt like it dragged, all those references to hide and seek tactics in the snow, then this person goes this direction, than there's that path, well several passages kind of got mixed up in my awareness of what everyone was doing and I did space out for a while.

Of course, the ones intending to cause harm were caught and those in need of help were helped. Surely, the author could have gone further, but I think the way things happened fell into the usual mood of the books and provided interesting but not shocking content. 

If the author decides to not write more, I think the story ended in a hopeful way. I would not mind it. But something about the overall feel of this series seems to be lacking, thus I think one more book could accomplish the sense of closure, if that is what the author has in mind. Who knows, perhaps she already has plans for a couple more books...

Grade: 7/10