{"id":3595,"date":"2020-03-11T09:40:31","date_gmt":"2020-03-11T16:40:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/?p=3595"},"modified":"2020-03-11T09:40:31","modified_gmt":"2020-03-11T16:40:31","slug":"julia-spencer-fleming-hid-from-our-eyes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/julia-spencer-fleming-hid-from-our-eyes\/","title":{"rendered":"Julia Spencer-Fleming: Hid from Our Eyes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>If you\u2019re a fan of Julia Spencer-Fleming\u2019s, you\u2019ll be delighted to know that Hid From Our Eyes<\/em> picks up right where One Was a Soldier <\/em>left off.\u00a0 Since it\u2019s been awhile I\u2019ll recap: Episcopal priest Clare Fergusson and her husband Russ Van Alstyne have welcomed their first child (read the book to find out the child\u2019s name and sex).\u00a0 Clare is in addiction recovery, and believably \u2013 for anyone familiar with addiction \u2013 she teeters from sober to wishing she wasn\u2019t.\u00a0 That\u2019s the rich background.<\/p>\n

Spencer-Fleming tends to write on an epic scale, and this book is no exception to that rule.\u00a0 Filling her canvass with richly drawn and memorable characters, she also creates a wonderful mystery that\u2019s actually \u2013 mysterious.\u00a0 There are three separate cases of dead girls abandoned on the highway with no apparent cause of death, and the deaths are decades apart.\u00a0 The first one was in 1952; the next, 1972; and then there\u2019s a present day case.<\/p>\n

None of the cases were solved, and in the 1972 case, Russ was actually a suspect.\u00a0 Spencer-Fleming takes her time connecting the cases, the victims, and the investigators, but she does connect them in an incredible fashion.\u00a0 The mystery part seems to be a hard nut to crack and while Spencer-Fleming does supply some clues, other factors are unknowns.<\/p>\n

Complicating matters is the fact that the town is thinking of shutting down the police department and letting state troopers handle local crime.\u00a0 Clare is struggling with handling a newborn and working more or less full time at her church, and she also wants to help Russ solve the case, as it looks bad for the police department he\u2019s trying to save to have an unsolved case.<\/p>\n

Spencer-Fleming is expert at setting the sword of Damocles above her characters and having them operate underneath it, finding solutions in messy, human ways that strike at the reader\u2019s heart.\u00a0 I think that\u2019s one reason this series is beloved.\u00a0 Another is the rich Adirondack setting, and still another is Spencer-Fleming\u2019s pure skill as a mystery writer.<\/p>\n

And there\u2019s another.\u00a0 Throughout the book, there are characters who need or are being given a second chance.\u00a0 Misfits or those who have suffered misfortunes \u2013 all of them, Spencer-Fleming is telling the reader, have deserved a second chance.\u00a0\u00a0 The book is full of characters, starting with Russ and Clare, who have made mistakes and who have been given another chance.\u00a0 Don\u2019t give up on anyone, she seems to be telling us.<\/p>\n

This optimism, for want of a better word, connects her to writers like Louise Penny and William Kent Krueger, who also deal with dark subjects but whose essential message is one of optimism.\u00a0 There are few better ways to make a series beloved.\u00a0 The other way, and it\u2019s a skill Spencer-Fleming also possesses in spades, is writing an ending that leaves the reader hanging.\u00a0 You want more when you finish the book \u2013 you want to know what happens next.\u00a0 This is a wonderful reunion with Clare and Russ.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019re a fan of Julia Spencer-Fleming\u2019s, you\u2019ll be delighted to know that Hid From Our Eyes picks up right where One Was a Soldier left off.\u00a0 Since it\u2019s been awhile I\u2019ll recap: Episcopal priest Clare Fergusson and her husband Russ Van Alstyne have welcomed their first child (read the book to find out the … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[5,338,339,337,61,100,14,13],"class_list":["post-3595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-americancozy","tag-clare-russ","tag-episcopal-church","tag-hid-from-our-eyes","tag-julia-spencer-fleming","tag-minotaur-books","tag-psychological","tag-suspensethriller"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3595"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3595\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3597,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3595\/revisions\/3597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}