Impressive plotting

As impressed as I am with the ability of writers of series mysteries to repeatedly come up with clever and unique plots for their characters, I am particularly impressed with the likes of Faye Kellerman and Julia Spencer-Fleming, authors who time and again must invent ways to involve a second main character, someone not a professional crime solver, in the mystery. And I am not talking about just a Dr. Watson-like sidekick

Kellerman's books feature Los Angeles Police Lt. Peter Decker, yet deeply involved in solving each mystery is his wife, Rina Lazarus. How likely is this to happen even once in real life? Yet each time Kellerman makes it seem at least plausible.

Spencer-Fleming may have an even more challenging task, for she writes about Police Chief Russ Van Alstyne and Clare Ferguson, the local Episcopal priest. The two are more than friends, not yet not quite lovers. Yet somehow whenever the Millers Kill, N.Y., police chief investigates a murder case, she is right there in the middle of it.

Her 2006 book All Mortal Flesh (the title is taken from a line in a hymn) has Van Alystyne's estranged wife as the murder victim. She had kicked her husband out of the house because of his relationship with Clare, and now her mutilated body is found in their kitchen.

As if this isn't bad enough, both of our heroes has a young woman making a pest of herself. In Clare's case, because of the scandal caused by her relationship with the chief, she has been assigned a deacon, supposedly to assist her, but really to keep an eye on her.

Meanwhile, because the chief's wife is the murder victim, he becomes the prime suspect, and an ambitious young investigator from the state comes to town to take over the case, relieving Russ of his gun and badge. Clare herself becomes a secondary suspect.

Despite these restraints, the pair, mostly acting independently, manage to solve the crime. This makes exciting reading, and the pages fly by so quickly one has little time to wonder how likely all this might be in the real world. I call that impressive plotting.