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This page lists novels that feature the priest and amateur investigator Rev. Clare Fergusson and Chief Of Police Russ Van Alstyne.

In the Bleak Midwinter

Julia Spencer-Fleming

2002

A Rev. Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne novel.

"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 needs is trouble, but that is exactly what she finds. When a newborn baby is abandoned on the church stairs and a young mother is brutally murdered, Clare has to pick her way through the secrets and silence that shadow that town like the ever-present Adirondack mountains. As the days dwindle down and the attraction between the avowed priest and the married police chief grows, Clare will need all her faith, tenacity, and courage to stand fast against a killer's icy heart."

A Fountain Filled With Blood

Julia Spencer-Fleming

2003

A Rev. Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne novel.

"Nestled in the heart of the Adirondacks, Millers Kill, New York, is about as safe as it gets. That's why Episcopal minister Clare Fergusson is shocked when the July Fourth weekend brings a rash of vicious assaults to the scenic town. Even Clare's good friend, police chief Russ Van Alstyne, is shaken by the brutality of the crimes - especially when it appears that the victims were chosen because they were gay. But when a third assault on an out-of-town developer end in murder, Clare and Russ wonder if the recent crime wave is connected to the victim's controversial plan to open an upscale spa in Millers Kill. But not all things in the tiny town are what they seem and soon, Clare and Russ are left to fight their unspoken attraction to one another, even as they uncover a labyrinthine conspiracy that threatens to turn deadly for them both."

Out of the Deep I Cry

Julia Spencer-Fleming

2004

A Rev. Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne novel.

"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."

To Darkness and To Death

Julia Spencer-Fleming

2005

A Rev. Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne novel.

"Chief of Police Russ Van Alstyne wants nothing more than a quiet day of hunting in the mountains on his fiftieth birthday. The Reverend Clare Fergusson expects to spend the day getting St. Alban's Church ready for the bishop's annual visit. In Millers Kill, where everyone knows everyone and all are part of an interconnected web of blood or acquaintance, one person's troubles have a way of ensnaring others. What begins as a simple case of a woman lost in the woods leads to a tangle of revenge, blackmail, assault, kidnapping, and murder. As the hours tick by, Russ and Clare struggle to make sense of their town's plunge into chaos - and their own chaotic emotions. Something terrible waits in the ice-rimed mountains cradling Millers Kill. Something that won't be content with just one death---or two."

All Mortal Flesh

Julia Spencer-Fleming

2006

A Rev. Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne novel.

"In the small community of Millers Kill, gossip spreads like wildfire. So when Russ's wife kicks him out of the house, he figures it's nobody's business but his own until a neighbor stops by and finds Mrs. Van Alstyne's butchered corpse on the kitchen floor. To the townspeople and church folk, the murder is proof that the whispered rumors about the police chief and the priest were true. But nothing is as it seems in Millers Kill, where betrayal twists old friendships and evil waits inside quaint white clapboard farmhouses."

I Shall Not Want

Julia Spencer-Fleming

2008

A Rev. Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne novel.

"In the small Adirondack town of Millers Kill, New York, life doesn't stop for heartbreak. A brand-new officer in the police department, a breaking-and-entering, and trouble within his own family keep Police Chief Russ Van Alstyne busy enough to ignore the pain of losing his wife--and the woman he loves. At St. Alban's Episcopal Church, the Reverend Clare Fergusson is trying to keep everyone happy all the while denying her own wounded soul. When a Mexican farmhand stumbles over a Latino man killed with a single shot to the back of his head, Clare is sucked into the investigation. The discovery of two more bodies executed in the same way ignites fears that a serial killer is loose. Now two would-be lovers, who thought they had lost everything, must find a way to trust each other again - as the violence strikes ever closer to home."

One Was A Soldier

Julia Spencer-Fleming

2011

A Rev. Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne novel.

"On a warm September evening in the Millers Kill community center, five veterans sit down in rickety chairs to try to make sense of their experiences in Iraq. What they will find is murder, conspiracy, and the unbreakable ties that bind them to one another and their small Adirondack town. But coming home is harder than it looks. One vet will struggle with drugs and alcohol. One will lose his family and friends. One will die. Since their first meeting, Chief of Police Russ Van Alstyne and Rev. Clare Fergusson's bond has been tried, torn, and forged by adversity. But when he rules a veteran's death a suicide, she violently rejects his verdict, drawing the surviving vets into an unorthodox investigation that threatens jobs, relationships, and her own future with Russ. As the days cool and the nights grow longer, they will uncover a trail of deceit that runs from their tiny town to the upper ranks of the U.S. Army, and from the waters of the Millers Kill to the unforgiving streets of Baghdad."

Through the Evil Days

Julia Spencer-Fleming

2013

A Rev. Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne novel.

"Clare Fergusson and her new husband, Police Chief Russ van Alstyne, are awoken in the night by an urgent call: a farmhouse has erupted into flames, killing the couple sleeping inside. But the couple had not been alone - their eight-year-old foster child, Mikayla, has vanished. Still recovering from a life-saving operation, Mikayla will sicken and die if she doesn't receive medication, and now the police force of Millers Kill has just eight days to find her. As snow drives down, they face a near-impossible task. And Clare and Russ discover that the icy storm isn't the only threat being posed... Can anyone unpick the trail before it's too late?"