In this, the 8th installment
of the Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James series, Gemma has just assumed her
new role of Inspector at the Notting Hill station when the wife of a
prominent antiques dealer is found murdered outside their home.
Unfortunately, the manner of death looks very similar to an unsolved
case of Duncan's, so before she knows it, he is working with her on
the combined case -- both blessing and curse.
As always in Crombie's writing, the
case is full of well-drawn, three-dimensional characters who have
complex, intertwined lives that it takes a while to figure out. But
this time there's a wrinkle: Duncan has arranged for himself and
Gemma to sublease a house in Notting Hill, thus combining their two
families and moving forward in their life together. But that means
that the interesting characters in this case are not just suspects
and persons of interest – they are their new neighbors, people with
whom they will need to interact over the long haul.
I found this case particularly
intriguing. It involves a very complex back story that slowly
unfolds, and even though it is complex, it is believably so. I
didn't figure out “who dunnit” until the big reveal, and as tends
to happen when characters are well written, by the end my heart ached
for many of them – so much suffering for events that transpired
literally a lifetime before.
At this point I want to discuss another
big part of the ongoing subplot of the title characters' life, so I'm
issuing a SPOILER ALERT. Don't read on if you don't want to know the
next major plot twist in Duncan and Gemma's life together. Just stop
here with my recommendation that this is definitely a book worth
reading.
Seriously, I mean you – don't just
peek at the beginning of the next sentence unless you want to know!
At the end of the last book, we learned
that Gemma was pregnant. Throughout this book she comes to terms
with that reality. It is the catalyst that leads to Duncan and Gemma
combining households (that plus the fact that Kit finally comes to
live with Duncan full-time) and it impacts her work relationships
and pretty much everything. But in the final pages of the book,
Gemma loses the baby. I think that this was a wise choice on
Crombie's part. The introduction of the pregnancy allowed her to
break through Gemma's stubborn reserve and accept moving in together
much sooner and more easily than would have been plausible. It made a
lot of good things come together in this one book. But
realistically, having the baby would have been really, really
challenging to incorporate into future stories. I know that brave
policewomen everywhere DO go back to work and put their lives on the
line again with an infant at home – but I think having Gemma do so
would have fundamentally changed the flavor of this series. The
choice that was made is a better one, and it set the stage for the
many good things to come.
