One Was a Soldier

One Was a Soldier by Julia Spencer-Fleming
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

One Was a Soldier is fundamentally an anti-war op-ed novel. It's also an excellent mystery, the seventh in Julia Spencer-Fleming's Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne series.

At the very end of the last book, I Shall Not Want (2008), The Reverend Clare Fergusson, who was an Army helicopter pilot for 10 years before she was ordained, announced that she was re-upping and off to Iraq. The author likes to leave her books, which are very much about the private lives of the characters as well as being good mysteries, with a sort of cliff-hanger. It works with me; I'm always eager for her next mystery.

In this book Clare is back from Iraq and suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and coping by self-medicating with prescription drugs and alcohol. This is a wee bit hard to believe, but we must suspend disbelief when we read fiction and I'm willing to do so here.

Harder to believe is that she is given her old parish back when she returns. There are about six times more Anglican clergy in the US than Episcopal churches and hers would be a particularly plum spot. But no mind, Clare is back in Miller's Kill, NY, (pop about 1,500 I think) and has joined a therapy group run by a benighted psychologist up from Albany. The others in that group cover the ground from an overly cheerful double amputee to a guy with anger management issues. When one of the group dies and the police call it suicide the group refuses to believe it and investigates the death themselves.

Once again Spencer-Fleming has written a book that is not put-downable. I zipped through it to the surprising cliff-hanger on the last page.

WARNING: Do not look at that last page before you finish the book. Don't do it.

2011 No 66  Coming soon: The Mind of Bill James

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