To Darkness and To Death

 To Darkness and To Death is the fourth book in the 10-book series by Julia Spencer-Fleming. As previously reviewed, this is a series of novels about Clare Fergusson, an Episcopal priest, and Russ Van Alstyne, the chief of police in Millers Kill, a town in upstate New York. In this story, the heir of one of the wealthy local families has decided to sell their massive property which has been in the family for 100 years. The property had been supported by the timber industry, but it has grown progressively more expensive to operate the business at the same time it could be sold to developers for millions of dollars, a move that is being protested by some radical nature elements. The author dives into the history of all the families and organizations involved at the same time she continues to develop the relationship between the two protagonists. Both Russ and Clare are persons of high ethics who have found their intense attraction to one another to conflict with their own standards, as well as what they know the public expects of them. It would be a massive scandal if the married police chief and a single priest were discovered to be having an affair. Still, they've done nothing to act on their mutual attraction accept to admit their feelings to one another. The book ends with an intense fire emergency in the property that is scheduled to officially change hands and Russ' decision that he would admit to his wife that he had fallen in love with another woman. It's my plan to read on, and I've already downloaded the next book, All Mortal Flesh.