It's a cold, snowy December in the upstate New York town of Millers Kill, and newly ordained Clare Fergusson is on thin ice as the first female priest of its small Episcopal church. The ancient regime running the parish covertly demands that she prove herself as a leader. However, her blunt manner, honed by years as an army pilot, is meeting with a chilly reception from some members of her congregation and Chief of Police Russ Van Alystyne, in

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

Hot-on-the-heels of her multi-award-winning debut, In the Bleak Midwinter, Julia Spencer-Fleming delivers the latest captivating mystery in her acclaimed series. When the local doctor disappears from the small town of Millers Kill, New York, it doesn't take long for the gossip-mongers to start insinuating foul play. Amidst escalating suspicions that he was “disposed of" due to his ongoing fight against authorities to cut his clinic's funding,

Nestled in the heart of the Adirondacks, Miller's Kill, New York is about as safe as it gets. That's why Episcopal minister Clare Fergusson is shocked when the July Fourth weekend brings a rash of vicious assaults to the scenic town. Even Clare's good friend, police chief Russ Van Alstyne, is shaken by the brutality of the crimes — especially when it appears that the victims were chosen because they are gay. But when a third assault of an out-of-town