This is the third book in Julia Spencer-Fleming’s series centered around the town of Miller’s Kill in upstate New York. Russ Van Alstyne is the sheriff there. He’s a former Vietnam vet and is married. There is a lot of sexual tension between him and the Rev. Claire Ferguson, who is a former Army pilot and the priest at the town’s Episcopalian church. It makes for quite the unusual romantic mystery.

Out of the Deep I Cry goes back in history to a time during the early part of the Depression. The area was predominantly inhabited by farmers at the time, who were struggling to support their families. Some of them might have made questionable decisions in regard to this, but the details aren’t revealed until the end despite numerous flashbacks.

When the local doctor in charge of the free clinic goes missing, suspicion turns to the anti-vaxxer who was protesting outside. She blamed the doctor for her son developing autism, and is facing custody issues due to her refusal to vaccinate her daughter. She was also the last person believed to have seen the doctor prior to his disappearance. Rev. Claire Ferguson was counseling the woman, even though she is not a member of her congregation. The church is facing major building issues as well, which has led to one of the members volunteering that she could end the family trust established back in the 1930s, which gives some funding to the clinic. Claire is caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place with regard to the clinic. The doctor’s disappearance doesn’t make anything easier.

As Russ investigates it from a legal standpoint, Claire looks at the history behind the trust and learns a lot about the past, including another man who disappeared and was never seen again back in the 1930s, right after the dam was built. Is all of this connected?

The first book in this series, In The Bleak Midwinter, didn’t rope me in. However, I gave it a chance, and this third book is quite good. There’s been a slow burn between Russ and Claire, and I found myself uneasily rooting for them. Having worked in a church for a number of years, her situation with the building and dealing with her vestry rings very true. It’s very hard to get people to agree, especially when it comes to spending money. I’ve grown to like Claire more, and here she takes a very keen interest in the social issues surrounding the free clinic. This leads her to look into the past as to why the trust was established. It’s a heartbreaking tale of a woman who did the best she could with the hand life dealt her, and tried to make something good come from something bad.

Russ’ wife, Linda, is, once again, gone for most of the book. We do finally get to meet her, but their marriage is an unusual one. She doesn’t like his job, and rather than acknowledging the danger it presents, she chooses to live in denial. He loves her, of that there is no doubt, but she’s not someone he can open up to and talk about what’s bothering him. That’s a void Claire has unintentionally filled for him, and it keeps bringing the two closer together. The triangle makes sense as they are each getting something they need (okay, I’m not really sure why Linda is still married to him if his career makes her that unhappy). Still, Claire is more aware of the danger their feelings present to both of them.

The audiobook is narrated by Suzanne Toren, who does a great job. She has different voices for the different characters, but doesn’t go crazy trying to act the scenes out. She lets the words tell the story, rather than trying to tell it herself. There are inflections to each different character, but I didn’t feel like she was trying to influence how I perceived the character.

I absolutely loved the story in Out of the Deep I Cry. It sends a message without hitting people over the head with it. There’s no exaggeration that entire families were killed off by diseases we no longer worry about today. Just visit any cemetery and look at the number of children’s graves prior to the inception of vaccines. Russ and Claire have grown into interesting characters, and their story is a good one. Claire finally feels realistic to me, which was an issue I had in the beginning. I’ll definitely be continuing with the series.

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