All Mortal Flesh is the fifth 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 is a series you really have to read in order at this point. There’s been a slow burn going on with the relationship between Russ and Clare. When I read the first book, the undertones of attraction between a member of the clergy and a married man was rather off-putting for me, and I’m far from a religious conservative. With the last couple of books, I started rooting for them as it became obvious that Clare was providing something Russ’ wife, Linda, wouldn’t. I think the only way you can really appreciate how it’s developed through these books is to read them from the beginning.

That said, All Mortal Flesh really takes it to a new level. At the end of the previous book, To Darkness and to Death, Russ had decided to tell his wife he was in love with Clare. I thought his take on how she would react was pure fantasy, and I was right. There has been tension between the two since then, and even with seeing a marriage counselor, Linda tossed Russ out of the house about a week before events in All Mortal Flesh. Russ has moved in with his mother, while Linda stayed at their home.

A call comes in to the Miller’s Kill Police Department. A neighbor has found a mutilated body in her friend’s home. That friend is Linda Van Alstyne, Russ’s wife. It happens to be Russ’s day off, and the police department goes to great lengths to keep this silent until they can find him. His Deputy Chief of Police, Lyle, begins the investigation, caught between protecting his friend and investigating it properly. All of them know that statistically most murders are committed by someone the victim knew, and with his marriage troubles, Russ is a likely suspect.

Clare, meanwhile, has been on a retreat to an Adirondack cabin owned by one of her parishioners. The Assistant to the Bishop, who became a confidante of hers at the end of the previous book, arrives during her retreat to tell her the Bishop has decided to assign a Deacon to Clare’s parish. Clare believes it is in response to her sanctioning the marriage of a gay couple (this was prior to the Episcopal church’s recognition of same-sex marriages). When she returns to Miller’s Kill, she learns about Linda’s murder. Clare is caught between what she knows she should do and what she wants to do, with her new Deacon observing.

The emphasis in All Mortal Flesh is on small towns and how secrets are hard to keep. Yet we find out down the line that Linda was keeping a big secret from Russ. I found this a bit hard to believe. We’re shown how information spreads fast among the town with the gossip of Linda’s apparent murder. Any other secrets would have been fodder for gossip as well. As Russ tries to do his part in the investigation, one of his officers thinks he’s protecting the real murderer and secretly calls the State Police to come in and take over the investigation. The Officer who comes from the State is someone looking to bolster her career more than she is looking for justice. Toss in a sister-in-law in mourning and wanting revenge for her sister’s betrayal, and it’s a chaotic winter in Miller’s Kill.

What I liked was that there was no moment between Russ and Clare where they acted like “Yay, Linda’s dead!” Clare knows how hard grief can be. She was planning on avoiding Russ from now on so he could work on his marriage, but she knows he needs a friend right now. Her visit to Russ’s mother just to pass along condolences goes awry when Russ appears and lashes out at her due to his own guilty conscience. It’s only with her, though, that he can let himself go and truly grieve.

Some of the mystery was very obvious. I had a good idea who it was early on, and I was partially right. I also guessed another part of the story pretty quickly. It’s something that can be considered a plot point in many whodunits. I have to say, though, that the ending completely shocked me. I was not expecting that, and I want to get to the next book to see what’s coming next. All Mortal Flesh ends on something of a cliffhanger that has roped me in.

I can appreciate the characters this far into the series. Clare and Russ are human beings above all else. They try to do the right thing again and again, but it seems almost like there is a force pushing them together. Usually, Clare has a good perspective on it, and Russ struggles more since he lacks the spiritual faith Clare has. This shows in his mourning and overwhelming feelings of guilt. I thought the two of them were so well-written as they acted more like close friends than two people in love because this was not the time for them to be exploring their relationship.

There are moments in life that are between the blow and the pain, between the phone ringing and the answer, between the misstep and the fall. One that comes to everyone is a moment, or three, or five, between sleeping and waking, when the past has not yet been re-created out of memory and the present has made no impression. It is a moment of great mercy; disorienting, like all brushes with grace, but a gift nonetheless.

Suzanne Toren narrates this as well as the earlier books in the series. I still thinks she portrays Clare a little too much like Scarlett O’Hara. Russ’s voice seemed to be of a man older than he is supposed to be. He’s older than Clare at 50, but still pretty vital. The voice she uses made me think of Wilford Brimley in those Quaker Oat commercials. However, she does a decent job with enough variety in her voice to cope with a myriad of characters in this book and make them distinctive.

I wasn’t sure about this series in the beginning, but I’m glad I stuck with it. So far, this is the best book of the series but I’d say you definitely need the background of the earlier books to appreciate it.

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