A Novel but Implausible Story

A review of Julia Spencer-Fleming’s novel, A Fountain Filled with Blood (NY: Thomas Dunne Books / St. Martin’s Minotaur, 2003)

I have not read Julia Spencer-Fleming’s first novel, In the Bleak Midwinter. But it had been described to me as an "Adirondack" mystery with an Episcopal priest as the protagonist. Therefore, when I tackled A Fountain Filled with Blood and was told that it was a sequel to the first novel, I was surprised to find that it took place in what most upstate New Yorkers would have generously referred to as "the foothills" of the Adirondacks. It was even more of a surprise to discover that the hypothetical community in the book is a neighbor to my hometown, Hudson Falls, N.Y. Therefore, I approached my reading anticipating personal enthusiasm.

In addition, as one of those who was at first horrified, and then spiritually shaken by the gay-bashing death of Matthew Shepherd, the jacket fly message which connected that Wyoming incident to a similar string of hate crimes in this book caught me emotionally, and set me up to be awed.

Neither thing happened for me. Instead, I found myself reading a book with a plot which felt somewhat contrived and lacking in credibility. The character of Reverend Clare Fergusson (a troublesome title which the author explains away as being convenient) displays a rather shallow development. I spent most of my time sorting out her mixed roles of single woman, priest, potential adulterer, amateur sleuth, helicopter pilot, and occasional rector of "St. Alban’s Church"… almost too much for one novel. The author seems compelled to explore fully every component of each of those credentials.

It was important that the issue of gay-bashing in ex-urban communities was the focus of this novel. The reluctance of the chief of police to investigate that possibility, even after two gay men are murdered, is a telling factor too often the case in less metropolitan locations. The deaths came fast and furious, something which would have created far more of a community crisis than the book tends to depict. For these small towns an accidental death in an auto mishap is a community-wide crisis. Murders strung together like these would have totally disrupted the entire population, and the media response would have been far more dramatic than Spencer-Fleming describes. Add to that the spice of homosexuality, and the overly-homophobic towns (once described to me by a friend as "redneck") would have exploded.

When she then agrees to officiate at the blessing of a same-sex union to which friends and relatives are invited, I found myself chuckling. Her priestly bravery exists in a fantasy setting to which episcopal attention would have been drawn within moments after the first newspaper article appeared.

At first I thought I would go back and read In the Bleak Midwinter.

I don’t think so.

The Very Rev. J. Edward Putnam, D.Min. is interim dean of Saint Paul’s Cathedral in Syracuse, N.Y. Among previous parish assignments, he served as dean of All Saints Cathedral in Albany, N.Y. He may be reached by email at eputnam@saintpaulscathedral.org