A NYTimes rave for our own Julia Spencer-Fleming

HALLIE EPHRON: There's much excitement here at Jungle Red! 

Fireworks! 

Drum roll! 

We're delighted to report that MIDNIGHT COMES THE CRY, Julia's brand new, hot off the presse book, has earned an absolutely glowing review from The New York Times's mystery maven, Sarah Weinman.

We're madly toasting Julia, and happily sharing the news. 

Here's what Ms. Weinman has to say: 

Over 10 books, Spencer-Fleming has examined the joys and ills of small-town life, the limits and tests of faith, and the many ways love can prevail. In AT MIDNIGHT COMES THE CRY (Minotaur, 308 pp., $29), her first book in five years, the longtime Millers Kill, N.Y., police chief Russ Van Alstyne has just resigned. He and his wife, the Rev. Clare Fergusson, have settled in for a quiet holiday season with their 8-month-old son. That is, until a white supremacist group descends upon the town, inciting violence at the annual lighted tractor parade, and Russ gets word from Officer Hadley Knox, the newest member of the Millers Kill police department, that her former partner has vanished after a stint infiltrating local militia groups.

It doesn’t take long for Russ and Hadley to realize that the people they care about are in the cross hairs of malevolence, and that following the procedural playbook won’t keep them alive. Fleming, in her most masterly turn yet, mixes heart-stopping action with deep empathy for her characters.

Goodness! It doesn't get much better than that!

Brava Julia! Russ and Clare can bask.