Julia Spencer-Fleming's new mystery: the wait is over!

About 3 years ago, I finally started reading Julia Spencer-Fleming's mysteries. My friend, Judith Sornberger, is a retired English professor from Mansfield University, and she had taught an upper-level seminar in women authors of mysteries. In this course, she taught the first in the Spencer-Fleming series, entitled "In the Bleak Midwinter." Someone had traded in a copy of this book, but it was in such well-loved shape that it wasn't really suitable for resale. I took it home to read.

At the time, there were 8 books in Russ Van Alstyne/Clare Fergusson series. I inhaled these books. To be honest, I don't usually read all the books in a series in one go: I mostly prefer to mix my authors and genres, so that my reading life isn't too formulaic. Didn't matter on this series. I wanted more, more, more of the story of this small town in upstate New York which so closely reflected life in our area. More of the story of Russ Van Alstyne, small town police chief, Vietnam vet, and his increasingly close relationship with the new Episcopal priest in town, a nontraditional woman who was a helicopter pilot and medic in the Army before going to seminary. I was so impressed with how Spencer-Fleming's books were able to capture the real human struggles behind issues taken right out of contemporary news headlines, even though the earliest books were written nearly 20 years ago.

So, I inhaled the books and then the series came to a screeching halt, leaving her audience on a cliffhanger. When would book #9 come out? Bad news, friends -- book 8 was released in 2014. Now what?

A little research showed that Julia Spencer-Fleming's beloved husband of 30 years, Ross Hugo-Vidal, died of cancer in Sept. 2017, within a year of his diagnosis. Julia found herself unable to move forward with the draft of book nine. She promised her fans she would get back to it as soon as she could, and asked for their patience.

Finally, my friends, the wait has paid off!!! Book Nine, "Hid From Our Eyes", releases in hardcover on April 7, 2020. If you are someone who has come to Julia Spencer-Fleming through our recommendations at From My Shelf, pre-order your copy for book nine with us! If you pre-pay, we can give you 30% off the suggested cover price of $27.99, making your copy $19.59 + PA sales tax. If you can't prepay, but would still like to pre-order to have a copy reserved for you, we can offer you 20% off cover price.

Send us an email, a Facebook private message, or call us at 570-724-5793. The game in Miller's Kill is afoot once again!