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Type of bind: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN num: 9780312988883
ISBN number: 0312988885
Label: St. Martin's Paperbacks
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Paperbacks
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 432
Printing Date: May 03, 2005
Publishing house: St. Martin's Paperbacks
Release Date: May 03, 2005
Sale Popularity Level: 38815
Studio: St. Martin's Paperbacks
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On April 1, 1930, Jonathan Ketchem's wife Jane walked from her house to the police department to ask for help in finding her husband. The men, worn out from a night of chasing bootleggers, did what they could. But no one ever saw Jonathan Ketchem again...
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.
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Rated by buyers 
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Rev. Clare and Sheriff Russ have another murder to solve. This book is a cliff hanger and I loved every minute.
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OUT OF THE DEEP I CRY, and cry I did. I started this book over a month ago after getting an autographed copy (and a hug) from Julia at the South Carolina Book Festival. I was ill at the time and became even more ill in the weeks that followed. I kept plugging along, wanting to read more and more, but alas, my cardiac specialist said "Into the hospital with you!" And in I went. Well, you'd think lying in a hospital bed would give me plenty of time to read. Too bad I could not stay awake. So I huddled in my fashionable hospital gown, waiting to have heart surgery, and unable to read the last six pages of the dang book that was calling to me. So today, one week after receiving my defibrillator and pacemaker, it gives me great pleasure to announce, "I FINISHED THE BOOK!"
Julia Spencer-Fleming has a great talent for pulling together characters and setting to the point of them almost being one. Clare and Russ are such a part of their environment that I don't think one could survive without the other, much like Clare and Russ in their personal lives.
Whodunit? Where is the body? Whose body is that? Would a single mom kill to protect her beliefs and her children? Bootleggers, long-buried secrets rearing their ugly heads, and a roof about to collapse-all great materials for mayhem. The clever twists of this book had me tugging on those pages, not being able to read fast enough to get the answers I craved from the story. The flashback areas of this story are remarkably well written and give the story a flavor that would be a delight for any mystery reader. This story, is giving me fits on whether I like it or In the Bleak Midwinter better.
Hats off to Julia Spencer-Fleming for a book worth savoring and sharing (the word, not the book - you have to buy your own copy-I know Julia has kids to feed.)
Rated by buyers -
In this third installment of the Reverend Clare Fergusson/Chief Russ Van Alstyne mysteries, Clare counsels young mother Debba Clow, who blames her son's autism on vaccines laden with mercury. Debba is leading a (sometimes violent) protest against the Jonathan Ketchum Memorial Free Clinic and its current head, Dr. Allan Rouse. When the good doctor suddenly vanishes, the struggling single mom becomes Russ's main suspect.
Set alongside this present day crime is a mystery from Millers Kill's past. The roof in Clare's church has developed a destructive leak, so she needs a lot of money - fast. A town matriarch offers to liquidate her family's trust fund and donate it to the church, but the dividends from that fund have been aiding the free clinic since its creation. As Clare struggles with the decision to take the money or not, she digs into the town archives, reading stories about the clinic and its namesake, who also disappeared without a trace some 70 years earlier.
I loved the juxtaposition of the past and present day crimes. While Clare helps Debba by looking into the disappearance of Dr. Rouse, she also unearths clues to the 70-year-old case of Jonathan Ketchum. The novel's chapters weave back and forth through time and focus on various characters, all of whom have their own tales to share. As the book progresses, more and more pieces of both puzzles start to click into place.
The author does a wonderful job setting the stage for this small town which has seen better days. The town and its troubles come alive, and even the minor characters seem like full-bodied people. While there are a handful of definite good guys and bad guys, much of the cast is marvelously gray. The characters face some tough choices, and sometimes it's only the decisions they make which put them on the side of right or wrong. Russ and Clare's relationship is a perfect example of this. Their forbidden affection for one another is a palpable thing, and it makes their complicated friendship beautifully painful to observe.
There are several other books in the series that I haven't read yet, but I'm definitely going to get my hands on them. If you're a fan of amateur sleuths, clerical sleuths, or mysteries where the small town atmosphere is as much a character as the people who inhabit it, you should give this series a try.
Rated by buyers -
This was a good read. It had good tension and moved quickly. It kept my interest and I liked the characters. I didn't want to put it down. This was the very first book I have read from this author and enjoyed this book enough that I would read others by this author.
Rated by buyers 
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This is my second Clare/Russ mystery so far. I listened to both as audiobooks and contrary to what some have said, I very much enjoyed the reading style of Suzanne Toren, and feel she does justice to the characters and makes them seem real.
I greatly enjoy the writing style of Julia Spencer Fleming. I love her rich and clear descriptions of settings and her narrative of the action. Her dialogue is crisp and believable, never faltering. Her main characters are so real and likable that you feel as if you're right there with them, experiencing their joys and their difficulties. Clare Fergusson and Russ van Alstyne are two of the most sympathetic and intelligent heroes to come along in a sunth of Mondays. I was glad to see their relationship developing in Book #3, though I wish it could have developed a bit more. We are adults here, you know, and can deal with some marital infidelity, especially when it's clear that Clare and Russ are soulmates.
Compared to In the Bleak Midwinter, I thought that the mystery in Out of the Deep was a bit slow to develop, not surfacing until maybe a third of the way through the book, when we'd heard quite a bit about the need for repairs to the roof of St. Albans. I also thought she dragged out the misery and death throes of the four unfortunate children and their parents too long and too many times in the story. The Dr. Rouse character was credible as a venal individual not entirely dedicated to helping human suffering. That trait I'm sure he shares with many, though not all, of the medical and dental profession.
The resolution of the mystery of Jonathan Ketchem in 1930 had many similarities to the resolution of the mystery in Sharyn McCrumb's Ballad of Frankie Silver. I wonder if Ms. Spencer-Fleming was familiar with that true story. As in In the Bleak Midwinter, I thought Clare a bit too daredevil getting impulsively involved in every dangerous situation without a thought to her safety. It seems she and Russ are always getting hurt, frozen, or soaked in some god-awful place. Thank God it gives them more time to spend together.
I'm going to keep reading these mysteries as they're quite diverting.
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