In the small Adirondack town of Millers Kill, an old lumberman sits in the dark with his gun across his knees. Not far away, an unemployed logger sleeps off his bender from the night before. The owner of the town's last paper mill tosses in his bed. And a young woman, one of three heirs to the 250,000-acre Great Camp, wakes alone in darkness, bound and gagged. Chief of police Russ Van Alstyne wants nothing more than a quiet day of hunting in the mountains on his fiftieth birthday. His wife needs to have the town's new luxury resort ready for its gala opening night. The reverend Clare Fergusson expects to spend the day getting St. Alban's Church ready for the bishop's annual visit. Her long-distance suitor from New York expects some answers about their relationship during his weekend in town. In Millers Kill, where everyone knows everyone and all are part of an interconnected web of blood or acquaintance, one person's troubles have a way of ensnaring others. What begins as a simple case of a woman lost in the woods leads to a tangle of revenge, blackmail, assault, kidnapping, and murder. As the hours tick by, Russ and Clare struggle to make sense of their town's plunge into chaos-and their own chaotic emotions. Something terrible waits in the ice-rimed mountains cradling Millers Kill. Something that won't be content with just one death-or two. In To Darkness and to Death, Julia Spencer-Fleming continues her moving story of the way a small town, as well as a great city, can harbor evil, and the struggle of two honest people to deal with the ever-present threat of their feelings for one another. "Spencer-Fleming writes with grace and clarity about the environmental ideal of turning tracts of developed land back to their natural wilderness state. But she shows even more sensitivity in depicting the human cost." "A rich and fulfilling story…time spent with these characters is to be cherished." "Disparate elements fuse with elegant plotting…Spencer Fleming parcels out the excitement until the stunning conclusion. She also continues her sensitive handling of the tension between Clare and the very married chief of police she's fallen in love with." "Spencer-Fleming has brought alive the people and environs of Millers Kill in another riveting mystery." "Quite a departure for Episcopalian priest Clare Ferguson and the man who loves her, police chief Russ Van Alstyne: a Rube Goldberg plot that crams all manner of secrets and crimes into the most hectic twenty-one hours in Millers Kill's history.…The results show that God has both endless compassion for mortal screw-ups-and a terrific sense of humor." "Suzanne Toren takes advantage of every opportunity to individualize these characters…The pace goes from slow burn to a truly explosive climax; Toren's narration does likewise." "Spencer-Fleming makes effective use of her vividly realized Adirondack setting, and she keeps the story moving at a good clip…The fourth installment in a satisfying series." "Clare Fergusson and Russ Van Alstyne make a fresh and unusual detective partnership, and I always welcome Clare's impetuous but wise take on the world around her."
