I Shall Not Want

 

I Shall Not Want by Julia Spencer-Fleming is this author’s sixth book in her Fergusson/Alstyne murder mysteries. If you’ve been following my reviews of these books, you’ll know that I’ve had quite favorable opinions of those novels. Please search for those comments in this blog. In this story, the relationship between the two protagonists is finally consummated, this being made possible by the murder of Alstyne’s wife of 25 years. However, as seen in the earlier books, Spencer-Fleming does not make that happen easily. Both parties are torn between living according to high ethical standards and the obvious sexual craving that they have for one another. In addition, the mutual self-tortures of Clare and Russ are accompanied by serious criminal activity of others that must be solved. As we’ve seen in prior stories, this involves Clare overstepping the usual boundaries expected of an Episcopal priest and Russ rushing into a dangerous circumstance and getting injured. This time he was shot in the chest, and while close to death, he survives to fight and love another day.

 At this point in the series, I was screaming for the consummation to finally happen. I thought the author really took much too long to get there. From the above paragraph, you get my sense that these stories have gotten a bit formulaic. I just did not enjoy this book much as the earlier ones, but I also know that even the best authors do not always write winners. I do find it remarkable that this reviewer is a nontheist and it is a surprise, even to me, that I’ve gotten this far with a character who is a deep-faith Christian who makes frequent referrals to scripture. Given that I started reading about Clare and Russ in the 11^th book, At Midnight Comes The Cry, and I gave that one a 5-star review.