To Darkness and To Death by Julia Spencer-Fleming

To Darkness and To Death Julia Spencer-Fleming  Mystery    2005 Rating: B+

To Darkness and To Death is a bit of a departure in this series of mysteries by Julia Spencer-Fleming: it’s not really a mystery.  The book is set within a day, and the author flits in and out of various characters’ points of view as one event – the transfer of a huge tract of land from private ownership to a conservancy organization – triggers many different reactions amongst the good folk of Millers Kill, New York.  What you have here is more of an action/thriller type book disguised as a mystery.  And, though most of the bang the reader gets for her buck comes at the end, there is plenty of taut suspense throughout. 

Early one November morning Clare is called out to do a search and rescue.  A local heiress – the progeny of a long dead lumber baron – has gone missing on the day she is scheduled to sell her land to a Malaysian company.  This company, upon acquiring the rights to the land has promised cede them to the Adirondack Conservancy Corporation so that the land may return to its natural state.   It’s a complicated deal that stands to profit many – except for those people in Millers Kill who rely on the land for its lumber and pulp resources.  For Ed Castle, whose daughter Becky put together this deal for the conservancy, this means an end to his business and forced retirement.  Shaun Reid will see his family’s legacy absorbed into a megaconglomerate.  For Randy Schoof, it means bankruptcy and foreclosure.  The day begins much like any other, but by midday the death of these people’s dreams will lead to violence and death of a different kind…

This book is really quite different from the rest of the series in that it’s told using many different people’s voices, and, while Clare and Russ’s are among them, they contribute more to the novel’s organization than to the novel’s emotional arc.  Clare and Russ’s activities fill in the gaps and adding clues to the mystery of what is really going on here.  But the social issue at hand here – responsible lumbering and its effect on nature – is explored by the characters whose lives depend on that forest land.  Spencer-Fleming does a thorough job explaining what is at stake and why leaving forest land alone isn’t as simple or easy as it would first seem.

A  theme that stands out here is the destructive nature of undiluted self-interest.  Over and over characters who are totally focused on their own needs, on getting the own way, while ignoring morality, ethics or consideration of others come to grief, often in spectacularly unpleasant ways.  Not all of these people commit crimes or actively do wrong, and not all of these people are unsympathetic – Spencer-Fleming does a very good job of separating the sin from the sinner and making her many secondary characters multi-dimensional - but by book’s end the self-absorbed of Millers Kill have been chastened.  Which seems ominous foreshadowing for future books: at the story’s close one of the series protagonists seems on the cusp of making this same mistake. 

While To Darkness and To Death is not my favorite of the series this far, it is a compelling read and an interesting change of pace for this series.  Upon finishing it, I couldn’t wait to read the next one, All Mortal Flesh to see where the author would further take both Millers Kill and Clare and Russ's relationship.

As I continue on with this series, the librarian in my can’t help but begin to make reading connections.  I’m beginning to feel that readers who enjoy Suzanne Brockmann might also enjoy Spencer-Fleming.  While Brockmann writes navy SEAL books with superman heroes, and Spencer-Fleming’s characters are not “larger than life” in this same way, there is a certain similarity of feel to their writing.  Both authors have a military connection, and while Rev. Clare Fergusson isn’t a navy SEAL, she has a number of physical skills, acquired in the military, that make her out of the ordinary.  Russ Van Alstyne has a blunt earthy charm.  He’s a man’s man who is not intimidated by a woman who can take care of herself and who likes to speak her mind.  Sound familiar to Brockmann fans?  Both authors manage to convey in their fiction the idea that people are capable of great good and should exercise this ability a bit more.  Both delve into social issues and aren’t afraid to take a stand.  Both seem to be socially liberal in their outlook.  I wouldn’t describe either Brockmann or Spencer-Fleming’s books as laugh out loud funny, but there is a subtle vein of humor in the writings of both that lightens up content that could be very black without it.  No If You Like recommendation is fool-proof, but I would not hesitate to recommend Spencer-Fleming to a Brockmann fan wanting something good to read.  My librarian 2 cents. 

tags: books  mysteries  julia spencer fleming