Actually there are three mysteries as the novel opens (and at least that many as it ends). The body of a young woman in a party dress is found in the middle of a road, both her identity and cause of death unknown. But an identical unsolved crime also happened in 1972 and earlier in 1952.
Millers Kill police chief Russ van Alstyne, who as a young Vietnam veteran was the initial suspect in the 1972 case, now has his job on the line because of an approaching vote that could disband the small-town police force. The pressure to solve these crimes, or at least the most recent one, and save his department becomes intense.
Meanwhile the chief's wife, Clare, the Episcopal priest, has a new baby to take of while she fights her compulsion for alcohol and/or drugs. Just the same, she gets involved in helping her husband solve this perplexing mystery.
The novel has much more going on, including the chief's mother's longtime relationship with the former police chief and a lawsuit involving one present deputy and a former one.
As for the mysteries Spencer-Fleming leaves us with at the end, they include the disappearance of one of the novel's characters, Russ's future after he is forced to resign and the question of what will happen to Clare after she yields to temptation.
Another mystery, at least to me, is which of her novels I will read next, a later one in the series or one of the earlier ones I missed?
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