Julia Spencer-Fleming

In the Bleak Midwinter: A Reverend Clare Ferguson Mystery

Julia Spencer-Fleming

• 2003 Barry-1st Novel winner
• 2003 Macavity-1st Novel winner
• 2002 Agatha–1st Novel winner
• 2003 Anthony-1st Novel nominee
• Score: 36.53

It’s a cold, snowy December in the upstate New York town of Millers Kill, and newly ordained Clare Fergusson is on thin ice as the first female priest of its small Episcopal church. The ancient regime running the parish covertly demands that she prove herself as a leader. However, her blunt manner, honed by years as an army pilot, is meeting with a chilly reception from some members of her congregation and Chief of Police Russ Van Alystyne, in particular, doesn’t know what to make of her, or how to address “a lady priest” for that matter.

The last thing she…

All Mortal Flesh: A Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne Mystery

Julia Spencer-Fleming

• 2007 Anthony-Novel nominee
• 2007 Macavity-Novel nominee
• 2006 Agatha–Novel nominee
• Score: 18.57

Police Chief Russ Van Alstyne’s first encounter with the priest Clare Fergusson 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. He figures his wife kicking him out of their house is nobody’s business but his own until her body is discovered, 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.

Out of the Deep I Cry: A Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne Mystery

Julia Spencer-Fleming

• 2005 Anthony-Novel nominee
• 2005 Edgar–Novel nominee
• Score: 12.55

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. No one ever saw Jonathan Ketchem again.

But the Ketchems were far from forgotten. Over time, the family died off—except for Jane Ketchem herself (whom everyone but a few stubborn optimists/pessimists decided had been made a widow by Jonathan’s disappearance). When Jane inherited substantial funds and a successful dairy business, she grew the money…

A Fountain Filled with Blood: A Reverend Clare Ferguson Mystery

Julia Spencer-Fleming

• 2004 Barry-Novel nominee
• Score: 6.54

In front of him, the headlights illuminated a swath of achingly green corn, cut off from the shoulder of the road by a sagging fence of barbed wire twisted around rough posts. His door was yanked open, and he wanted to think of Paul, to think of his children, but the only thing in his head was how the fence looked like the one on the cover of Time, like the one Matthew Shepard died on, and he was going to die now too, and it was going to hurt more than anything. “C’mere, faggot,” one of them said as he was dragged from his seat. And the pain began.