This was a pretty good mystery read for me. I haven’t read the previous books in the series which I think would have helped me like this story more.
Three murders that occurred in 1950, 1972 and in present day. Though all three murders appear somewhat similar, the 70 year age span of the murders seems confusing and unrealistic. Is there a serial killer in their midst?
Overall, a well written police procedural. Now just to read all the books in the series!

This is a little different from other titles in the series. Russell and Clare are learning how to cope with their new baby in the present but as Chief of Police Russell Van Alstyne receives notification of a young woman mysteriously hit by a car on a lonely road and needs to solve the crime by examining the past. Oddly, there have been similar calls before in 1952 and 1972 that were never solved. In fact, Russell, just back from Vietnam was a suspect in the second killing. He has to look carefully at the murders of young women, found dead in the same area, dressed in clothes they didn't have before their deaths, without purses and shoes to figure out the one connection - which should lead to the killer!

It's been a while waiting for this book but what an exciting and intense book. There is romance but it is kept clean. The mystery is a great one to try to figure out, I hope you can do it. You did a fantastic job Julia. This is a must read if there ever is one. Thanks for the exciting book Julia!

Thank you NetGalley, the publisher and the author for the opportunity to read and give an honest review of this book.

How have I missed Spencer-Fleming’s mysteries in the past? Thank you NetGalley for introducing me to this author. It makes me want to go back and read her prior books leading up to this one!

Police Chief Russ Van Alstyne of Millers Kill Police Department is married to Episcopalian Priest Clare Fergusson. Their baby , Ethan, rounds out their nuclear family. They love their lives in the small town in the Adirondacks. They are very likable characters. They seem normal with a history of various problems that seem to follow them in their current life.

Things become complicated when a body ends up abandoned on a road in town and it mimics an unsolved murder in 1972 and one in 1952 in the same area.

Clare helps her husband in the solving of the crimes. However, she is busy managing her own job in the parish and dealing with a young baby that does not yet sleep through the night.

There is pressure on the police department because the towns that fund them, are about to vote them out, in a referendum and bring in state police to take their place, in a money-saving approach.

This book is a very satisfying read. If you haven’t yet read anything by this author, I would highly recommend it.

So good, you want to finish it and find out the end, but the thought of the book ending makes you sad... a must read!

Love this author and love this series. I was on pins and needles, awaiting the arrival of the next book within this series and was not disappointed! Great job!

Hid From Our Eyes by Julia Spencer-Fleming

Hid from Our Eyes: A Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne Mystery by Julia Spencer-Fleming is out today. This is a short review to let those of you who adore this series (and I'm one of you) that this the ninth in the series is available today to ease your quarantine blues. My review is short because I don't want to include spoilers.

If you haven’t read any in this series, start with In the Bleak Midwinter and you’ll soon race to read all nine. Clare is an Episcopal priest in a small town in the Adirondacks. Russ is the Chief of Police and their town is considering turning over policing to the State Police when a murder that mimics two unsolved possible homicides -- one in 1972 and one in 1952 -- threatens to reduce confidence in the local squad. Issues including PTSD, treatment of women, and sobriety make this book more than a clever romp. Clare has personal concerns that I can't share as they'd ruin the series for those who haven't yet read the earlier books. The problems of her job and her life are overwhelming though. The local minor characters in this series never disappoint the reader. These books are simply perfect for our times. I found the ending a touch too tidy, but I loved revisiting Clare and Russ and look forward to seeing what happens next.

Summing It Up: The Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne mysteries offer a clever premise, interestingly flawed characters, a fascinating small town, and plots that always deliver. Begin with In the Bleak Midwinter unless you've read the others. If you have, you won't need encouragement to begin Hid From Our Eyes immediately.

Rating: 4 stars

Category: Chinese Carryout, Fiction, Grandma's Pot Roast, Soul Food

Publication date: April 7, 2020

Author Facebook Page:https://www.facebook.com/juliaspencerfleming/

Read an Excerpt: https://us.macmillan.com/excerpt?isbn=9780312606855

Interview with the Author: https://bookpage.com/interviews/25034-julia-spencer-fleming-mystery-suspense#.XoyPPHJOnIV

What Others are Saying (Don't read these if you haven't read any books in the series.):
"Series fans have had a long wait to dive back into Spencer-Fleming's cleverly constructed mysteries, and this ninth entry (following Through the Evil Days, 2013), which delivers a haunting exposure of the town’s dark side, won’t disappoint." —Booklist

BookPage: https://bookpage.com/reviews/25027-julia-spencer-fleming-hid-from-our-eyes-mystery-suspense#.XoyPXHJOnIV

Kirkus Reviews: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/julia-spencer-fleming/hid-from-our-eyes/

Publishers Weekly: https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-312-60685-5

I have come to the most recent “end” of Spencer-Fleming’s Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne series with a sigh of satisfaction and anticipation for the next book, underway but by no means on the pubbed radar. One reason why I love this series is Spencer-Fleming’s ability to deliver the familiar with something fresh, new, and surprising. In Hid From Our Eyes, she continues Clare and Russ’s great love and now adorable parenthood, offers ample glimpses into the ensemble cast who surround them, but also introduces new characters, fleshes out beloved, well-known ones, advances, but barely, to my great chagrin, a secondary romance, and depicts three murders occurring in different time periods, 1952, 1972, and present-day. She links them by the murders’ similarity: a dead young woman is found on a Millers Kill roadway, the autopsy failing to establish cause of death, and three police chiefs, Harry Neil (1952), Jack Liddle (1972), and Russ Van Alstyne (present-day), committed, intelligent, ethical, try to find the murderers. (Spencer-Fleming lobs a gasp-worthy revelation when one of Jack’s 1972 suspects is a newly returned military vet, angry, wild, and oh-so-sad, barely out-of-his-teens Russ!)

After the intensely personal, character-based last two series volumes, One Was A Soldier and Through the Evil Days, Spencer-Fleming somewhat returns to procedural narrative. The three murders, spanning over sixty years, have a Twin-Peak-ish quality that sang to my forever-90s-television heart. And the chiefs of police, mentor-figures to the one who follows, are steady, ethical, detecting figures amidst the different historical worlds they inhabit: police methods, attitudes towards women, and the wars that haunt their past and were formative for them, WWII, Vietnam, the Gulf War (Iraq and Afghanistan belong to Clare). But the determination to bring justice remains the same and drives Harry as much as Jack and our beloved Russ. One of the novel’s delights is the re-appearance of the now-retired Jack Liddle, who joins the ensemble cast, as Russ’s detecting sidekick and possible love-interest (he’s carried a torch for years) for Margy, Russ’s adorable activist mom. Add Spencer-Fleming’s knife-twist of a plot addition, the possible dissolution of the Millers Killers police department and reader-agony reaches peak intensity.

Despite multiple narratives, three murders, and a campaign to Save Our Police, led by Margy and cheered and aided by Clare, we still get delicious glimpses into the characters’ lives, albeit not as intensely as the two previous books. (Which were also super-hot. Whodathunkit Spencer-Fleming, so circumspect, could write such hot love scenes? Sadly, this is a strictly-closed-bedroom-door-don’t-even-mention-the-bedroom-door narrative.) We watch Clare navigate new motherhood amidst a demanding career and continue to struggle with addictions. We watch Russ become an adoring, proud father, one who can wield a baby-spoon. Baby Ethan James Van Alstyne, chubby, temperamental, and energetic, makes every scene better with his antics. Hadley and now-long-gone younger lover, Kevin Flynn too are less together on scene and yet, even with a few appearances, I wanted to see them be together, work things out … argh. Spencer-Fleming satisfies by not satisfying.

The novel leaves us with questions, worries for Clare and Russ and their friends, family, and colleagues, and one great BIG OLE cliffhanger, which, I hope, will be explored/resolved in the next book. What Spencer-Fleming’s series never fails to offer, steadily, in each and every volume, are her characters’ decency, humour, care, and love for others. Russ and Clare are at the core of this community, happily married, still deeply, but now more quietly, in love. There are dark clouds on the horizon, but our belief in their firm “lastingness” holds us steady till the next book, long may they reign. Another wonderful addition to one of my favourite series, Spencer-Fleming’s Hid From Our Eyes emerges from “a mind lively and at ease,” Emma.

Julia Spencer-Fleming’s Hid From Our Eyes is published by Minotaur Books. It was released in April and may be found at your preferred vendors. (If you haven’t read the series, I highly recommend you start with the first book, In the Bleak Midwinter, and work your way through.) I received an e-ARC from Minotaur Books, via Netgalley.

Spencer-Fleming continues to intrigue with her Clare Ferguson series. I have read every one of the Clare stories, and this one was especially good because we were given more insight into her husband and fellow investigator Russ VanAlstyne’s past. The story is a little predictable, yet told in a way that you have to finish it because it is told so well, and the characters are your best friends. I wish she came out with a book every year, she is one of my favorite mystery writer’s, and someone I can recommend to everyone, because there is no bad language, and little gore, yet it is not a cheesy cozy mystery with recipes. Loved it!

After a long wait, readers can pick up the story of Clare Fergusson and Russ VanAlstyne. The author has ingeniously created three more or less identical crimes, but separated from each other by decades of time. In 1952, the body of young woman is found lying in the middle of the road near Millers Kill, New York. The same scene occurs in 1972, and again in the present day. Medical examiners in each case are unable to determine cause of death.

Chapters alternate between the three investigations. In the meantime, Clare is caring for their newborn son, and dealing with the pressure child rearing places on her service as an Episcopalian priest. She is drawn into family tension when the bishop assigns a young priest to assist in the parish, and Clare realizes that her new assistant Joni is a recently transitioned trans gender woman. Joni's parents are summer residents of the area and deeply divided on the wisdom of their daughter's choice.

Corporate intrigue becomes important to the action, Joni's father has recently announced his chosen successor as CEO of a large corporation.

And if that is not enough, an upcoming local election will determine if the Millers Kill police department will be dissolved, and all issues relating to public safety turned over to state agencies. If it passes. Russ will be out of a job.

Spencer-Fleming skillfully manages all plot threads and keeps the action moving. Recommended for all who have enjoyed previous books.

The reviewer received a review copy from NetGalley

Wonderful read!! Turned and kept turning the pages, I couldn't stop. Would definitely reread and recommend! I cant wait to read more by Julia!

This book was a little hard to follow at first because of changing between decades, but it was necessary to read the back story. After I got into it, I really enjoyed it. This is the first book that I have read by this author, but it won’t be the last. I am looking forward to reading the rest of the series.

Three deaths, all with a common thread. But the three crimes in Millers Kill have happened in very different eras -- 1952, 1972, and present-day. Police Chief Russ Van Alstyne investigates, along with the Rev. Clare Fergusson (his wife), former police chief Jack Liddle, and his squad. Russ and Clare have a lot else going on: a newborn son, the possible dissolution of the police department, and personal demons. Spencer-Fleming has done it again: written a compelling mystery (and I love ones that go back and forth in time!), while giving us a character-driven novel in which flawed people struggle to do good -- and so we love them for that. I’m so glad to be back in Millers Kill!

Hid from Our Eyes is the 9th mystery in the Clare Fergusson & Russ Van Alstyne series by Julia Spencer-Fleming. Released 7th April 2020 by Macmillan on their Minotaur imprint, it's 352 pages and available in hardcover, paperback, audio, and ebook formats.

Although it's been 6+ years since the 8th book in the series, it wasn't a problem for me to keep the characters or their relationships straight. The author provides the necessary backstory in the narrative, so new readers won't need a dramatis personae list to keep them sorted either. It would work moderately well as a standalone. What might be slightly more problematic is the three interwoven timelines: 1952, 1972, and the modern day. The characters are overlapping, and one of the chief suspects from the murder in 1972 is a young Russ Van Alstyne, now chief of police. The delineation isn't always clear since some of the same characters appear in more than one timeline. The similarities in the (very) cold case murders and the modern day are well done and the writing in general is very capable and engaging.

Much of the book is concerned with the Reverend Clare, husband Russ, their infant son, and their day to day struggle to manage professional and family life. Clare is a recovering alcoholic and that is an important theme in the book also. The author has a deft touch with suspense and characterization and overall the book is quite good. There are some dark themes which are potentially triggering (substance abuse, fetal alchohol syndrome, depression, trauma). The language is rough(ish) with multiple usage of damn, hell, and similar and a couple of "f-bombs" used in context.

Four stars. Well written and engaging. Likely moreso for prior fans of the series who have built up a relationship with the characters.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes

So very happy to read this book. This series is one of my most favorite and I so enjoy catching up with Rev. Claire and Russ. Its just like see old friends again. Great read.

Hid from Our Eyes by Julia Spencer-Fleming is ninth in the Reverend Clare Fergusson and Police Chief Russ Van Alstyne series. This novel works well as a standalone but I would enjoy reading the previous ones. The mystery is set in three separate time periods. In 1952, the body of a young woman is found on a deserted country road, dressed in an expensive dress but without anything to identify her. The cause of death remained a mystery and the culprit was never found. In 1972, another unidentified young woman suffers the same fate and the crime is never solved. Now, in the present day, a third body is found in the same circumstances and it is up to Chief Van Alstyne and his police force to solve this crime and hopefully in the process, solve the other two murders. This is a suspenseful police procedural set over a period of fifty plus years. The only problem with the ending is an attempt by the author to set the scene for the next novel but I highly recommend Hid from Our Eyes. Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and Net Galley for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book was a much anticipated 9th in the Claire Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne mystery series, and did not disappoint.

Russ and Claire are now married and have an infant boy who takes up much of Claire's time, along with her duties as an Episcopal priest.

The story focuses on three unsolved mysteries, set in 1952, 1972, and present day. Three attractive young women, decades apart, are found dead on the side of the road with no identification. Russ, the Chief of Police, is under pressure to solve the killing of the present day victim.

The timelines and characters are switched back and forth which was somewhat confusing to me at times.

Who could have done the murder? Were the three murders connected?
Russ has help from the former chief of police. When forensic testing comes back on the murdered woman, Russ gets a break and soon figures things out.

His From Our Eyes is the ninth novel in a series from Author Julia Spencer-Fleming. I would describe this as a hybrid novel. A cross between a cozy mystery and a police procedural. Having just had a new baby, Clare Ferguson returns to her work in the church and her husband, Chief of police, Russ Van Alstyne continues to head the small and financially challenged police department at Miller’s Kill. This small department is thrown for a loop when the body of a young, unidentified woman is found on a rural road. With fancy clothes, fresh makeup and an unknown cause of death, the girl bear an eerie resemblance to 2 prior unsolved deaths. One in 1952, another in 1972. Both cases the women were dumped on the same road, never identified and their cause of death remains unknown. With three apparent homicides left unsolved, Russ is under a lot of pressure to solve these unusual deaths as the town council weighs throwing out the MKPD completely and using the State Police instead. Clare stuck in the middle hopes to use her position as a religious influencer in the community to help her husband in any way she can. Having not read the previous 8 novels I certainly may have some deficits of character development. I do believe by and large;however, that this story can stand alone. This isn’t a fast paced, heart pounder. It is more of a slow burn with the story unfolding methodically and slowly over 300 plus pages. If you live by the seat of your pants this may not appeal to you. This story has its strengths in the character stories and the ongoing development of the characters. We do get a setup for a storyline at the end of this novel. Review posted to Amazon, Goodreads, Facebook, and LibraryThing.

There sure were a lot of subplots. One of the things I like about a mystery series is watching the characters develop, There hasn't been much deepening of characters in this book. I was disappointed.

This was a wonderful crime novel that spanned a period from 1952 to present day in Millers Kill (what a name for a town). In 1952, Harry McNeil, the police chief visits the crime scene of a woman in a party dress. There is no obvious cause of death.
In 1972 Jack Liddle is now police chief of Millers Kill. Back in 1952, he was a trooper who worked that case. There are a lot of similarities and focus is on Russ van Alstyne, a Vietnam vet, but there’s nothing to tie him to the crime.
Fast forward, Police Chief Russ van Alstyne gets a call that another murder has been killed using the same MO. This puts Russ back under the microscope, and he, along with his policeman and the Rev. Clare Ferguson, want to solve this murder in hopes that it will lead to solving the first two.
This certainly kept my attention. I definitely recommend it for those who enjoy mysteries.