Take a photo of a barcode or cover
paigecm 's review for:
Hid from Our Eyes
by Julia Spencer-Fleming
I was so excited to see a new volume from Julia Spencer-Fleming, but to be honest, I was a bit nervous, too, because it felt like the previous volume in the series had struggled a bit in balancing fairly somber character development and plot. I am happy to say, though, that "Hid From Our Eyes" is a very strong entry in the series. It has a genuinely complex and creepy mystery, which I didn't figure out till the very end. As is usual for Spencer-Fleming, the mystery is thoughtfully entangled in issues of gender, sexuality, and power -- and both the revelation and the problem at the heart felt on point for society today.
Spencer-Fleming smoothly flips between three time periods, and in doing so, gives readers new insight into Russ Van Alstyne's past, which in turn helps to continue developing his relationship with Clare. And Clare, still struggling with her own demons, is nonetheless committed to asking difficult questions and chasing down answers.
So often, cozy mysteries are full of unrealistically perfect people -- so perfect that it's hard to understand how anyone ends up murdered in the first place. What I love about the Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne series is how Spencer-Fleming deliberately makes her characters less than perfect, and weaves their own struggles into the mysteries. It's clear by the end of the book that Spencer-Fleming has a plan in place to continue -- and take Russ and Clare in a new direction -- and I'll be curious to learn more in future volumes.
Spencer-Fleming smoothly flips between three time periods, and in doing so, gives readers new insight into Russ Van Alstyne's past, which in turn helps to continue developing his relationship with Clare. And Clare, still struggling with her own demons, is nonetheless committed to asking difficult questions and chasing down answers.
So often, cozy mysteries are full of unrealistically perfect people -- so perfect that it's hard to understand how anyone ends up murdered in the first place. What I love about the Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne series is how Spencer-Fleming deliberately makes her characters less than perfect, and weaves their own struggles into the mysteries. It's clear by the end of the book that Spencer-Fleming has a plan in place to continue -- and take Russ and Clare in a new direction -- and I'll be curious to learn more in future volumes.