lightreads (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
lightreads) wrote2020-05-31 09:25 am
lightreads) wrote2020-05-31 09:25 am
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Hid from Our Eyes by Julia Spencer-Fleming
Hid from Our Eyes
3/5. Continuation of this small town episcopal reverend/police chief mysteries. Yowza, that's a publishing gap. In between books in this series, I went through fertility treatment, pregnancy, and birthed two babies . . . five years apart. That said, it's a credit to this series that it all came back to me quickly – how these books hit that perfect spot of complexity and realness between cozy and gritty crime. How richly populated this world is. How much kindness is shown to everyone even as they sometimes do things that make you clutch your face and quietly say "oh, honey, no."
As a mystery this isn't particularly compelling – the whole thing unfolded entirely before me, to every last detail, several chapters before it was supposed to. But as a story of legacies, and of new parents (she pumps at a party turned crime scene! Glorious! Except, you know, horrible) and as a new visit with these people, it's great.
Don't appreciate the cliffhanger, though, given her recent track record.
As a side note, there was a special irony in reading this book, which has a subplot about how hard it is to parent an infant while working and without consistent childcare considering, well. Considering. A bit on the nose, thanks.
3/5. Continuation of this small town episcopal reverend/police chief mysteries. Yowza, that's a publishing gap. In between books in this series, I went through fertility treatment, pregnancy, and birthed two babies . . . five years apart. That said, it's a credit to this series that it all came back to me quickly – how these books hit that perfect spot of complexity and realness between cozy and gritty crime. How richly populated this world is. How much kindness is shown to everyone even as they sometimes do things that make you clutch your face and quietly say "oh, honey, no."
As a mystery this isn't particularly compelling – the whole thing unfolded entirely before me, to every last detail, several chapters before it was supposed to. But as a story of legacies, and of new parents (she pumps at a party turned crime scene! Glorious! Except, you know, horrible) and as a new visit with these people, it's great.
Don't appreciate the cliffhanger, though, given her recent track record.
As a side note, there was a special irony in reading this book, which has a subplot about how hard it is to parent an infant while working and without consistent childcare considering, well. Considering. A bit on the nose, thanks.
no subject
I liked your description of the cozy/gritty interface.
no subject
Yeah I figured it must be something pretty life-altering, all things considered, but hadn't poked around to find out what.
no subject
I like the way these stories humanize failings.
no subject
Yes, that's it exactly. We know precisely wy Clare takes the pills, and doesn't tell, and doesn't throw them away, and it's a mistake that could be shattering and I have no doubt she'll pay for it a lot. But it's painful, not infuriating, which I think is how humanizing should work.