Julia Spencer-Fleming’s debut In the Bleak Midwinter reached unprecedented heights amongst the mystery world awards, receiving the Agatha for Best First Mystery as well as the Malice Domestic, the Anthony, the Dilys, the Barry and the Macavity Awards, making Spencer-Fleming the first author to win all six awards for a first novel. Her follow-up A Fountain Filled with Blood was also a smashing success. Now, Spencer-Fleming delivers her best novel to date with Out of the Deep I Cry…

A DARK PAST THAT COULD BRING …

On April 1, 1930, Jonathan Ketchem’s wife Jane walked from her house to the police department to ask for help in finding her husband. The men, worn out from a night of chasing bootleggers, did what they could. But no one ever saw Jonathan Ketchem again…

DEADLY CONSEQUENCES TO THE PRESENT…

Now decades later, someone else is missing in Miller’s Kill, NY. This time it’s the physician of the clinic that bears the Ketchem name. Suspicion falls on a volatile single mother with a grudge against the doctor, but Reverend Clare Fergusson isn’t convinced. As Clare and Russ investigate, they discover that the doctor’s disappearance is linked to a bloody trail going all the way back to the hardscrabble Prohibition era. As they draw ever closer to the truth, their attraction for each other grows increasingly more difficult to resist. And their search threatens to uncover secrets that snake from one generation to the next-and to someone who’s ready to kill.

“Brings new airs and graces to the traditional small-town mystery…this is a very small town, but under Spencer-Fleming’s grave and tender touch it becomes a world that you want to visit and hate to leave.”

-The New York Times Book Review

“A poignant and provocative mystery.”

–Publishers Weekly (starred review)

The New York Times

The rich heritage of this Adirondack Mountain region also gives depth and complexity to the crimes that the well-matched pair must solve together. Here, the disappearance of the doctor who manages the local clinic dovetails with a family tragedy that dates back to the Depression era but was never put to rest. So, yes, this is a very small town, but under Spencer-Fleming’s grave and tender touch it becomes a world that you want to visit and hate to leave. — Marilyn Stasio

Publish Date : 2005-05-03