To Darkness and to Death is the fourth book in Julia Spencer-Fleming’s series about Episcopal priest Clare Fergusson and Miller’s Kill Chief of Police Russ Van Alstyne. Miller’s Kill is a town in the Adirondack area of New York State. This series didn’t really grab me from the start. I had a hard time with the characters, particularly Clare. She’s a former military helicopter pilot who felt called to be a priest. I worked for a female Pastor when I lived in New York (two of them, actually), so it wasn’t that I couldn’t relate to a woman being a religious leader. It was more that I felt like she wasn’t written realistically. I gave the series a chance, and by the previous book in the series, Out of the Deep I Cry, I was hooked. Clare and Russ have been doing a very slow burn in the romantic sense, which would also seem out of character, as they are both town leaders and Russ is married. However, it has worked as they both are fighting what they feel.

In To Darkness and to Death, we do finally get to know Russ’s wife, Linda, a little better. We first met her at the end of Out of the Deep I Cry, but it was little more than an appearance to make Clare feel uncomfortable about the attraction both she and Russ are denying. Now, we see her more in her role as Russ’s wife and their relationship.

Millicent van der Hoeven has decided to sell her family’s Adirondack estate to a nature conservancy.  It’s been in the family for years, and although her brother, Eugene, has lived there for most of his life, it seems like the time has come to sell. Unfortunately, Millicent disappears the morning before the van der Hoeven family is due to sign over the property at a gala benefit. Having experience in search and rescue with the military, Clare put her name on the list for the local volunteer search and rescue group. With so many people tied up in various ways, this is the first time Clare has been called upon for help.

There are many things going on around town at the same time. There are a lot of bad decisions made by people the reader is supposed to think of as a decent person, except for one aberration. I didn’t find that part realistic. In one case, the man is a respected business leader of the community, yet when he has an opportunity to do the right thing, he chooses not to. This happens time and again throughout the day. The violence seems to be mostly perpetrated by men against women, but it’s written like we’re supposed to feel sympathy for them, as if they were pushed into doing something they wouldn’t under “normal” circumstances. This was first published in 2005, so before the “Me Too” movement exposed a lot of how we accepted violence against women, and I’m not even sure if the author was conscious that she was doing this. That is the problem with how crime against women has been presented over the years. If they are bold enough to advocate for themselves, they deserve to be beaten down.

This is most clearly the case with Becky Castle, who grew up in Miller’s Kill but moved to “the big city.” She’s not a character I wanted to like, as she seemed intent on returning to her hometown just to tell everyone there how wrong they are about everything. Does that youthful arrogance mean she deserves to be murdered? Her actions on behalf of the Nature Conservancy will put a lot of people out of work, including her father. Yet she doesn’t see how the people who depend on logging to live are going to react to the situation and just wants to ride roughshod over them because she’s convinced that she is “right” and they are “wrong.” That doesn’t mean she deserves to be murdered! Yet, there is a sense that she deserved what she got in a way, and we are supposed to feel sympathy for her attacker, Randy, who is a local logger.

There really wasn’t much of a mystery. I figured a lot of it out early on. I knew who had kidnapped Millicent. It was just a matter of watching events unfold against the backdrop of the big gala that most of the town would be at.

The relationship between Russ and Clare speeds up a bit in this one as Russ can’t deny his feelings any longer. He and his wife have a marriage that seems to have run out of steam. I get it. She doesn’t allow him to open up to her about his feelings, especially about work, and Clare does. That’s what bonds the two of them, that they can have these deep conversations about whatever is happening at the time, while Linda shuts him down. However, I think Russ is being a bit of a dreamer when he tells Clare he’s going to tell Linda about his feelings for Clare. It’s got to happen sooner or later, but Russ is quite naive about how the situation will play out.

I enjoyed the audiobook quite a bit. I do think Suzanne Toren, who narrated the entire series, voices Clare a little too much like Scarlett O’Hara. She’s got a breathy southern-belle voice for her that doesn’t feel realistic. I wish she’d ditch the accent in particular, but that’s not likely. Otherwise, I like her diction quite a bit. She doesn’t get overly emotional, either, which is a good way of allowing the listener to develop their own feelings about each situation.

I do like the series more than I did in the beginning, but this one felt a bit off to me. I get that there are shades of gray in life. Not everyone is purely good, and not everyone is purely evil. However, it seemed concentrated in To Darkness and to Death that it’s men being pushed aside by the changes in the world who lash out at women, rather than a balance. The best thing about this book is how it advances the characters of Russ and Clare.

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