Rev. Clare Fergusson & Russ Van Alstyne Mysteries Books in Order
Part ofJulia Spencer-Fleming Books in OrderSee all Rev. Clare Fergusson and Russ Van Alstyne mysteries by Julia Spencer-Fleming in order, with summaries, series background, and quick tips on where to start.
Last updated: December 25, 2025
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Publication Order
11 books
At Midnight Comes the Cry
by Julia Spencer-Fleming
2025
At Christmas in Millers Kill, a white nationalist stunt at a beloved holiday parade exposes a dangerous militia network in the Adirondacks. As Russ, newly resigned as police chief, searches for missing people with officer Hadley Knox, Clare works her own channels to stop a deadly plot before it hits a holiday crowd.
Hid from Our Eyes
by Julia Spencer-Fleming
2020
Three young women in party dresses are found dead on the same rural road in 1952, 1972, and the present day, with no clear cause. As budget cuts threaten his department, Russ races to solve the latest killing, clear his own old suspicion, and keep his family with Clare safe.
Through the Evil Days
by Julia Spencer-Fleming
2013
Newly married and expecting a child, Russ and Clare plan a rustic honeymoon at a remote Adirondack lake. A double homicide and the disappearance of a critically ill foster girl send them into the teeth of an ice storm, where they must protect the child and themselves from a relentless killer.
One Was a Soldier
by Julia Spencer-Fleming
2011
Back from Iraq, Clare joins a small support group of local veterans who are struggling with anger, addiction, injury, and guilt. When one of them dies in what looks like suicide, she and Russ question the official story and uncover a conspiracy that reaches from Millers Kill to military command.
Letters to a Soldier
by Julia Spencer-Fleming
2009
This short companion ebook collects letters exchanged between key characters from I Shall Not Want and One Was a Soldier, revealing their wartime experiences, fears, and loyalties, and offering an intimate bridge between the two novels along with a note from the author.
I Shall Not Want
by Julia Spencer-Fleming
2008
Still reeling from recent loss, Russ and Clare keep their distance until migrant farmworkers start turning up dead on the edge of Millers Kill. Clare’s outreach ministry and rookie officer Hadley Knox pull them into a case that exposes prejudice, economic desperation, and a killer hidden in plain sight.
All Mortal Flesh
by Julia Spencer-Fleming
2006
Separated from his wife and shadowed by gossip about his bond with Clare, Russ Van Alstyne becomes the prime suspect when his wife is found savagely murdered. As state police close in, Clare faces church scrutiny and must decide what she truly owes to Russ, her calling, and herself.
To Darkness and to Death
by Julia Spencer-Fleming
2005
In a single frantic November day, a young heiress disappears from her family’s vast Adirondack estate just as a controversial land deal is about to close. Russ, hoping for a quiet birthday, and Clare, preparing for a bishop’s visit, are swept into a chain of kidnapping, betrayal, and deadly revenge in the woods.
Out of the Deep I Cry
by Julia Spencer-Fleming
2004
After the town’s clinic doctor vanishes, suspicion falls on a volatile mother who blames him for her son’s illness. As Clare and Russ investigate, they uncover a trail that reaches back to Prohibition era Millers Kill, where old tragedies still shape the present and threaten more lives.
A Fountain Filled with Blood
by Julia Spencer-Fleming
2003
Over the July Fourth weekend, Millers Kill is rocked by brutal attacks on gay men and then the murder of a developer planning a luxury spa. Clare presses Russ to see a link, pulling them into a tangle of hate crimes, environmental scandal, and growing tension between duty and desire.
In the Bleak Midwinter
by Julia Spencer-Fleming
2002
Newly ordained priest Clare Fergusson arrives in snowy Millers Kill, New York, already an outsider as both a woman and an ex army pilot. A baby left on her church steps and the young mother’s murder draw her and police chief Russ Van Alstyne into buried secrets and a risky attraction.
Series background & context
The Rev. Clare Fergusson and Russ Van Alstyne mysteries start with a simple idea, what happens when a thoughtful but impulsive priest teams up with a down to earth small town cop. From that pairing grows a long running series that traces both a set of crimes and a relationship over many years.
Most of the action takes place in Millers Kill, a once industrial village in the Adirondacks where church suppers, town meetings, and hunting season sit alongside poverty, prejudice, and old grudges.
Each book throws Clare and Russ into a new crisis. They handle everything from abandoned infants and closeted violence to missing teenagers, migrant farmworkers in danger, veterans carrying invisible wounds from Iraq, and women who vanish decades apart but under eerily similar circumstances. The mysteries often turn on long buried secrets, showing how choices made in one generation can haunt the next.
Clare brings an unusual mix of gifts to her ministry, she is a trained pilot who has seen combat, yet also a newly ordained priest trying to earn the trust of an aging congregation. Russ, a former soldier himself, has deep roots in Millers Kill and a practical streak that sometimes clashes with Clare’s stubborn idealism. As they work cases together, their respect and attraction grow, forcing them to balance personal feeling against vows, marriages, and professional codes they both take seriously.
As the novels move forward, the focus naturally widens. Younger officers join the police force, children grow into teenagers, and Clare and Russ move through grief, new commitments, and changing roles in the community. Later stories see them dealing with ice storms, wildfire level blazes, and even organized extremists who bring national tensions into their quiet part of New York. Through it all the books keep circling back to ordinary questions, how to raise a family, serve a calling, and still sleep at night when you carry other people’s secrets.
The tone stays grounded and humane, with moments of dry humor and warmth breaking up the darkest cases.
Fans of character driven crime fiction tend to appreciate this series because it rewards reading in order. Supporting characters develop, relationships change, and decisions in early books echo in later ones in ways that feel earned rather than tidy. If you enjoy mysteries that offer both a compelling central puzzle and the sense that you are returning to a familiar town full of people you know, the Clare Fergusson and Russ Van Alstyne novels deliver that feeling in spades.
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