REVIEW: All Mortal Flesh by Julia Spencer-Fleming

All Mor­tal Flesh by Julia Spencer-Fleming is the fifth entry in the Rev. Clare Fer­gus­son / Russ Van Alstyne mys­tery series. It’s a strong entry in a series that has been con­sis­tently entertaining.

Here is the synopsis:

Police Chief Russ Van Alstyne’s first encounter with Clare Fer­gus­son was in the hos­pi­tal emer­gency room on a freez­ing Decem­ber night. A new­born infant had been aban­doned on the town’s Epis­co­pal church steps. If Russ had known that the church had a new priest, he cer­tainly would never have guessed that it would be a woman. Not a woman like Clare. That night in the hos­pi­tal was the begin­ning of an attrac­tion so fierce, so for­bid­den, that the only thing that could keep them safe from com­pro­mis­ing their every belief was distance—but in a small town like Millers Kill, dis­tance is hard to find.

Russ Van Alstyne fig­ures his wife kick­ing him out of their house is nobody’s busi­ness but his own. Until a neigh­bor pays a friendly visit to Linda Van Alstyne ­and finds the woman’s body, grue­somely butchered, on the kitchen floor. To the state police, it’s an open-and-shut case of a dis­af­fected hus­band, silenc­ing first his wife, then the mur­der inves­ti­ga­tion he con­trols. To the towns­peo­ple, it’s proof that the whis­pered gos­sip about the police chief and the priest was true. To the powers-that-be in the church hier­ar­chy, it’s a chance to con­trol their way­ward cleric once and for all.

You can say that the author’s han­dle on a par­tic­u­lar plot twist in the series can be viewed as clever or manip­u­la­tive. Take your pick. I found it clever and sur­pris­ing. “All Mor­tal Flesh” is a solidly writ­ten mys­tery with plenty of twists and turns. I was enter­tained, period.

I read this  book in two days and want the next book in the series right now.  Why do I love this series, you ask? The author has an excel­lent ear for dia­logue and she has a pretty good grasp of her char­ac­ters and small town life. There’s a spot of humor in places. I espe­cially enjoy the church pol­i­tics and the peo­ple of Millers Kill, New York. After all of that, there is the sub­tle yet for­bid­den romance between the priest and the married cop.

A lot takes place in this entry. Clare who is a ex-helicopter pilot turned Epis­co­pal priest has fallen into dis­fa­vor with her church supe­ri­ors. They’ve decided to send her a new dea­con, Eliz­a­beth De Groot, to work with her. Clare sus­pects her to be a spy but takes her under her wing. Mean­while, Russ inves­ti­gates a mur­der that turns out to be a con­flict of interest.  

Gos­sip has spread around Millers Kill, New York, about Russ and Clare’s “improper rela­tion­ship”. Some peo­ple sus­pect that they’re lovers. This makes things dif­fi­cult for Russ who is try­ing to save his mar­riage. Meanwhile, Clare decides to move on with her life. How­ever, the plot goes on to twist and turn, thrust­ing the two together,  that even­tu­ally leads to a cou­ple of sur­prises and leaves  the read­ers with a cliffhanger of sorts.

I was enter­tained from the first page to the last; I couldn’t put it down. This author has been con­sis­tently enter­tain­ing and I love her autho­r­ial voice; plus it doesn’t hurt to have  a good ear for dia­logue. This book also has great atmos­phere along with an inter­est­ing con­flict. I love this series. You all should give it a try. My grade, A.

For Fur­ther Reading

• REVIEW: ‘Mys­tic River’ by Den­nis Lehane
• REVIEW: ‘Frac­tured’ by Karin Slaughter
• REVIEW: I Shall Not Want by Julia Spencer-Fleming
• REVIEW: To Dark­ness and To Death by Julia Spencer-Fleming
• REVIEW: The Edge of Jus­tice by Clin­ton McKinzie
• REVIEW: The 37^th Hour by Jodi Compton
• REVIEW: On Thin Ice by Alina Adams

Tagged as: Cozy Mystery, New York, Police Procedural, Rev. Clare Fergusson series