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I SHALL NOT WANT
by Julia Spencer-Fleming
St Martin's Minotaur, June 2008
336 pages
$24.95
ISBN: 0312334877


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Hadley Knox is the new kid in town, and she's just not very sure what's going on. She's got to earn some money, since she has two kids to support; even if he could afford it, she won’t ask her father to assume that burden. She used to be a guard in a prison, and there's an opening on the police force in Miller's Kill, where her father is the sexton at St. Alban's, the Episcopal church. Somehow, in spite of her very female form and lack of experience, she gets the job.

As the new kid, she doesn’t want to mess up. So how does she handle Kevin Flynn, the young cop who is all too aware of her feminine charms? What’s the deal with the chief, Russ Van Alstyne? He’s moody, that's for sure, and she's been warned not to mention Clare Fergusson around him. What’s the connection between her father's boss and her boss? And there's lots of tension between MacAuley and Russ; what's with that?

Of course the whole book is not about Hadley Knox. There are some murders - several young male Hispanics are found dead, not all in the same place and not all killed at the same time. Is there a serial killer on the loose in Miller's Kill? Nobody wants that, with the possible exception of the press. The dead men are probably illegal aliens, which presents some problems for Russ. His sister and her husband have been employing people they thought were legal aliens and now there is some doubt. So on top of everything else, Russ has family problems that overlap with work problems. Can his life get any worse?

Julia Spencer-Fleming makes sure that it does. I SHALL NOT WANT is a very powerful book, and an extremely well written one. While the fine details of the ending should come as no surprise to a reader familiar with her previous work, the journey there is filled with tension and suspense. Clare and Russ battle their personal demons, privately and publicly. I SHALL NOT WANT should satisfy the most demanding of Spencer-Fleming's fans. It is a superb work of fiction.

Reviewed by P.J. Coldren, May 2008

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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