“Out of the Deep I Cry,” by Julia Spencer-Fleming; St. Martin’s Press; hardcover $24
When Maine author Julia Spencer-Fleming was driving in the Adirondack Mountains, she came across a secluded reservoir and, conveniently, across the theme for her new mystery. Clustered on the bank of the man-made lake was a stand of old gravestones. Clearing away the lichen from the stones, Spencer-Fleming said her “arms ‘goose fleshed,’ as if a cold wind had blown across the lake.”

Five of the gravestones were erected for children from the same family. All of the children had died within two weeks of one another.

Later, ensconced in the local library, Spencer-Fleming discovered that these children died during a local diphtheria epidemic in 1864. And in the way that mystery writers are also themselves sleuths, Spencer-Fleming learned that the building of the reservoir displaced many families and most likely flooded the farm on which these children had lived their short lives.

From these details uncovered on a June day, Spencer-Fleming began work on “Out of the Deep I Cry,” the third book in her Clare Fergusson/Russ van Alstyne mystery series.

Those familiar with the series will know that the main character, Clare Fergusson, is an Episcopal priest who, according to her parishioners, appears in the papers too much. She does not appear in the paper for local charity drives or ice cream socials, but often for pinpointing a suspect in a crime. Spencer-Fleming puts Clare in the middle of the town’s drama not as a nosy, amateur sleuth, but as a curious, caring clergyperson confronting the town’s injustices.
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From the first, awarding-winning book in the series, this curiosity has led Clare to be the intellectual equal, confidant and unrequited love of the police chief, Russ van Alstyne. When a conflict in the community arises, Russ and Clare turn to each other for answers, but also for an excuse to spend time together as their unsanctioned relationship grows.

Clare and Russ’ professional paths cross in “Out of the Deep I Cry” when Dr. Rouse, the head of a local clinic, goes missing. The clinic’s major source of funding has just been revoked. The money has been withdrawn by one of Clare’s parishioners who decides to redirect the money to Clare’s St. Alban’s Church. Has the clinic’s financial crisis played a part in Dr. Rouse’s disappearance?

The last person to see Dr. Rouse is a young woman who has been protesting Rouse’s use of potentially harmful vaccines on area children. Rouse asks the woman to meet him at a reservoir where a country road dead-ends.

He brings the woman there to see the gravestones of four children who died within a few days of one another in 1921. The woman fails to see Dr. Rouse’s point in bringing her there, the two argue, the woman walks away and Dr. Rouse disappears. Does the story of these children lost two generations ago play a part in Dr. Rouse’s disappearance?

Spencer-Fleming is brilliant at interweaving the people, politics and problems of the town of Miller’s Kill into compelling mysteries.

In “Out of the Deep I Cry,” she takes her plotting to another level. Building from the deaths of these four children in the 1920s and their father’s disappearance several years later, Spencer-Fleming builds not only parallel, missing-person stories in two different time periods, but also her most complex mystery in the series so far. In a small town where families have lived for generations, the seeds of a crime may have been planted in generations past. Be prepared for your “arms to goose flesh” when Spencer-Fleming finally reveals the startling and heartbreaking crime that begins it all.

NOTE: The Clare Fergusson/Russ van Alstyne series begins with the award-winning paperback “In the Bleak Midwinter” and is followed by the recent paperback release “A Fountain Filled with Blood.”
Kirsten Cappy is a bookseller in Portland.

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