Clare Fergusson / Russ Van Alstyne Mysteries
5 primary works
Book 1
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. Her blunt manner, honed by eight years as an Army chaplain, is meeting with a chilly reception from some members of her congregation. Chief of Police Russ Van Alstyne, in particular, doesn't know what to make of her. When a newborn baby is abandoned and a young mother is brutally murdered, Clare has to pick her way through the secrets and silence that shadow the town like the ever-present Adirondack mountains. As the days dwindle down and the attraction between the avowed priest and the married chief grows, Clare will need all her faith, tenacity and courage to stand fast against a killer's icy heart.
Book 2
It's summer and a violent attack on a doctor triggers a series of gay-bashing episodes. The Episcopalian priest Clare Fergusson and Police Chief Russ Van Alstyne, who has been carefully avoiding one another, are thrown together. Still fighting their mutual attraction, Russ rudely bars Clare from taking any part in dealing with the violent homophobia, and from contributing to the investigation. As the reluctant partnership continues, closeness becomes inevitable. The pair find that it's hard enough trying to solve a crime with an assortment of valid suspects; it's even harder to tamp down a powerful personal attraction.
Book 3
On April, 1 1930, Jonathon 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 Jonathon Ketchem again.. Now decades later, someone else is missing in Millers Kill. This time it's the clinic's physician 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 hard scrabbled 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 someone who's ready to kill.
Book 6
Book 7
