Hid from Our Eyes: A Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne Mystery

Three murders of young women, found dead in the same area, dressed in clothes they didn't have before their deaths, wearing makeup with purses and shoes missing. The one connection ..... no one can figure out how they died. The first woman was killed in 1952. The second was 1972 and the third is present day. So far, the first woman was never identified .... all have been unsolved. And Russ, as a young man, just out of the military was a suspect in the second woman's murder. Russ is threatened with losing his job shortly ... the powers that be want to close down the local police station, putting him and his team on the unemployment line. He would like to solve this particular case as soon as possible. The story bounces from each crime to the present .... detailing how they tried identifying the victim and then trolling through family and friends looking for a killer. It's been 8 years since the last book in this series. I was thrilled to see this offered up as I have followed the series since the beginning. I highly recommend to any new readers to start at the very beginning. The characters are terrific. Reverend Clara Fergusson and Police Chief Russ van Alstyne have come a long way from the first published book. They've grown and matured, they've weathered all kinds of stormy weather, they've solved crimes together. This is, as all the others in this series, well -written with imaginative twists and turns leading to an unexpected ending. I thought this might be the last of the series.. but there is a small cliffhanger .... evidence that another book might be forthcoming. Many thanks to the author / St. Martin's Press - Minotaur Books / Netgalley for the digital copy of this crime fiction. Read and reviewed voluntarily, opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

This may be the 9th book in the series but it reads well as a standalone. It revolves between three different times, 1952, 1972, and present day as those are the years when a young woman is found dead on the road with no evidence why. It provides an intriguing story, especially since one of the main characters in the present time, Russ, was a suspect in the 1972 case and is now a police chief facing another murder. This was a good mystery and I liked getting to know Russ and Clare as they juggle with the case and a new baby and all the other work issues. The other character are interesting too, like Hadley and Kevin. I haven't read the other books in the series but I think I might now that I finished this one. Plus, with the ending this one has, I definitely would like to continue the story!

I received a free electronic copy of this excellent novel from Netgalley, Julia Spencer-Fleming, and Monitor Books. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me. I have read this novel of my own volition, and this review reflects my honest opinion of this work. I am happy to see this return to the story of Clare Fergusson, Episcopalian priest, and Russ Van Alstyne, Chief of Police of Millers Kill, a very small town in the scarcely populated county of Washington in New York state. We have three distinct timelines - August 1952, August 1972, and August of the present-day. These time frames all have several things in common - the yearly circus/carnival of the county, the various generations of several prominent local families, autumn folding color over the lovely Adirondack mountains - and the deaths of lovely young women found in new party frocks laying in the middle of McEachron Hill Road without shoes, purse, stockings or obvious cause of death. The current chief of police, Russell Van Alstyne, was 20, just returning from a second tour in Vietnam and considered a potential perpetrator of the second murder in 1972. The murders are all very similar but there are 70 years between first and last so maybe copycat but probably not one single perpetrator. There are only one or two people who even remember the 1952 death, which at the time was not considered murder but rather an unexplained death. Hid from Our Eyes is an exciting who-done-it, with interesting protagonists and a compelling pace. If you are new to this author, she has some excellent books already out there, and just as timely today as they were when newly released.