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...

Praise

“A MASTERPIECE.”—Richmond Times Dispatch

“Good plotting and writing...with characters that fans care about.”—Omaha World-Herald

“An appealing new character...Spencer-Fleming never disappoints.” —Charlotte Observer  

“With each book, Spencer-Fleming just keeps getting better.” —Richmond Times Dispatch

“Another suspenseful and involving mystery from an outstanding writer.”—Library Journal

“Tantalizing...Keenly moving and occasionally laugh-out-loud funny, this is a tour de force in a series that seems to have jumped several levels in quality.”—Booklist (starred review)

About the Author(s)

Julia Spencer-Fleming

Bestselling author JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING is the winner of the Agatha, Anthony, Macavity, Dilys, Barry, Nero Wolfe, and Gumshoe Awards, and an Edgar and Romantic Times RC Award finalist. She was born at Plattsburgh Air Force Base, spending most of her childhood on the move as an army brat. She studied acting and history at Ithaca College, and received her J.D. from the University of Maine School of Law. She lives in a 190-year-old farmhouse outside of Portland, Maine, with three children, two dogs, and one husband. Visit her on the Web at www.juliaspencerfleming.com

photo: Photo: Lisa Bowe

Visit Julia Spencer-Fleming's Website

Excerpt

Chapter One

Ordinary Time

July

When she saw the glint of the revolver barrel through the broken glass in the window, Hadley Knox thought, I’m going to die for sixteen bucks an hour. Sixteen bucks an hour, medical, and dental. She dove behind her squad car as the thing went off, a monstrous thunderclap that rolled on and on across green- gold fields of hay.

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