As I promised on Tuesday’s blog about award-winning mystery
novelist, Julia Spencer-Fleming, http://lindarodriguezwrites.blogspot.com/2013/10/literary-mystery-novelistsjulia-spencer.html,
today I’m reviewing Spencer-Fleming’s newest novel, Through the Evil Days (St. Martin’s Press/Minotaur Books). And I must confess, I approached this with
trepidation. Spencer-Fleming is one of my favorite writers, and her last book, One Was a Soldier, was an absolute tour de
force. If you haven’t read it, run, don’t
walk, to your nearest bookstore or online marketplace or library and grab it.
This was Spencer-Fleming’s most ambitious book in a series of ambitious novels,
and it was superbly executed. I frequently recommend it to others as the best
book, fiction or nonfiction, that I’ve seen on the situation of the soldiers
who are sent back again and again to Iraq and Afghanistan, the damage with
which they return, the harm the corrupt private corporations involved in these
wars do to those soldiers, and the way in which we as a country let them down
when they return home with physical, mental, and emotional wounds.
Consequently, I was as nervous about reading Through the Evil Days as I was eager for
it. Would it be a letdown after the great achievement of One Was a Soldier? How could she continue after a triumph like
that? Probably these same questions gnawed at Spencer-Fleming and contributed
to the longer-than-usual gap between these two books. I needn’t have worried,
however. Spencer-Fleming really is one of the finest writers practicing today,
and it shows in her newest novel.
Through the Evil Days
opens with explosive arson, a double murder, the abduction of a little girl,
and a dog that has failed in his attempts to guard his home and people. That’s
a lot to happen in less than two pages, and it slams the reader right into the
book. From there, we move to the protagonists, Rev. Clare Fergusson and Chief
Russ Van Alstine, who are dealing with Clare’s PTSD and the alcohol and drug
abuse it caused, as well as her unexpected pregnancy, stressing their brand-new
marriage as much as her battle-induced problems since Russ adamantly has no
desire for a child. Even as they travel to the crime scene in their
professional capacities, others are plotting threats to their positions as
Episcopalian priest and chief of the Millers Kill police force. There is plenty
of suspense to keep the reader turning the page to find out what will happen to
the child and to these two likable but flawed characters.
This book offers more than suspense, however, even though
the suspense is taut and the plotting is complex with unforeseen twists throughout
the book. Spencer-Fleming examines the massive illegal drug trade in the United
States today and the corruption that its huge amounts of money brings into our society,
the problems that women still face in the workforce, the struggles facing
towns and cities in this time of austerity as they try to keep providing
necessary services, and the difficulties of actually helping children in the
custody of parents who are negligent or abusive. She faces these issues
unflinchingly and shines a dispassionate light on all of them through her
characters and their actions and responses.
Spencer-Fleming has given us another book with characters
who come alive on the page, nonstop suspense, and surprising plot complications,
all presented in lucid, intelligent prose. Through
the Evil Days is another winner and will undoubtedly be nominated for the
mystery genre’s top awards.
Through the Evil Days
is available for pre-order now, and Spencer-Fleming is holding a contest in
which everyone who pre-orders the book will receive an autographed original
manuscript page and be entered in a drawing for a 16GB KINDLE Fire HDX. See her
website, http://www.juliaspencerfleming.com/,
for details.
