A Fountain Filled With Blood
Julia Spencer-Fleming
(Reviewer - Rebecca Brown)
2003 Minotaur Books
ISBN: 0312304102

Have Miller's Kill's gay citizens become the target for hate crimes?

Clare Fergusson, the Episcopalian vicar of a different stripe who was once an Army chopper pilot has survived her first mystery In the Bleak Midwinter

Now in A Fountain Filled With Blood it is summer, on the eve of July 4. Courtly Emil Dvorak, the town's medical examiner, is wending his way home from a pleasant evening with friends. On a quiet country road he backends a pickup truck that suddenly comes out of the darkness. Instead of helping him, the men from the truck pull Emil from his classic Cadillac & beat him to an inch of his life.

Meanwhile, in a hot & humid town meeting hall, the Rev. is among Miller's Kill's concerned citizens, crowded together upbraiding a developer whose machines have apparently released toxins from an extinct chemical plant which a local landowner has been trying to sell.

Then a harmless young man is beaten up in his video store & nothing is taken, neither his wallet nor the cash from the till.

In the quiet of the post fireworks celebration, the Rev. Fergusson, walking her friend's huge Bernese dogs in the park, stumbles upon the garrotted body of the developer, who was known to be gay. Police Chief Van Alstyne & the Rev. argue about whether Miller's Kill is the target of hate crimes -- gay bashing.

Once again Julia Spencer-Fleming gives us a fine mystery to unravel as well as the development of two thoroughly modern heroes who work well together while avoiding the inevitable -- their burgeoning affection for each other.

Not as thrilling as her first, however, a very satisfying read.
(02/15/04)

Rebecca