August 07, 2008

BOOKS: I Shall Not Want, Julia Spencer-Fleming (2008)

Sixth in the Clare Fergusson / Russ van Alstyne mystery series.

A series of murders of illegal immigrants hits the small town of Millers Kill, New York in Spencer-Fleming's latest. Most of the locals hadn't even realized that there were many illegal immigrants in the area, but farming in upstate New York is just as labor intensive as it is anywhere, and where there's a need for cheap labor, there will be men willing to do it.

The ongoing personal story between Clare and Russ finally gets to take a few steps forward, now that Russ has been conveniently widowed, and Spencer-Fleming doesn't quite seem to know what to do with that story. She was much better at the forbidden-love stuff in the earlier volumes than she is with the progression of an actual romance; the Clare/Russ scenes are too often mawkish and gooey. Russ, in particular, doesn't seem quite himself.

The murder mystery is a good one, with an array of intriguing suspects and motives; the final action sequence (a trademark of this series) in which the heroes confront the villains is skillfully done, with an unexpected layer of humor that is very effective.

The police side of the story focuses largely on Hadley Knox, Millers Kill's newest, and first ever female, police officer. She's still struggling with the job, with her own fears that she's in way over her head, and with the challenges of juggling career and single motherhood. Her insecurities get a bit tiring after a while, and I hope that she'll be -- as the other members of the police force have always been -- a supporting character only in future volumes.

The book's final plot twist has been inevitable since the final plot twist of the previous volume, so it doesn't have quite the dramatic impact that Spencer-Fleming was surely hoping for. Still, it's a development that can't help but shake things up, and perhaps it will shake the author out of the rut she seems to be slipping into with this volume. It's not a terrible book, and fans of the series will certainly want to read it, but it's the weakest installment yet, with the gooey personal stories overshadowing the mystery.

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