First Sentence: He ran, as so many others ran, the black anorak protecting him from the mist, the reflective patches on his trainers gleaming as he passed under the street lamps.There are big changes in the lives of Gemma James and Duncan Kincaid. They are expecting a child together, moving into a large new house, having Duncan’s son come live with them and her son, and Gemma has been promoted to Inspector. Gemma’s first case, in her new position, is the murder of Dawn Arrowood, beautiful young wife of wealthy antiques dealer, Karl. She is also the lover of a young antiques dealer, Alex Dunn, and she is six weeks pregnant. The case is slow in progressing as all Gemma’s suspects have very good alibis. Things become more challenging when Duncan uncovers a past murder that fits the same profile. Now they need to find the link between the two killings.Crombie is one of a few authors that does a good job combining her protagonists personal and professional lives without becoming overly sappy about the former or losing the tension in the latter. In fact, one thing I enjoy is the slow, almost imperceptible rise in the level of suspense throughout the book. I also appreciate her occasional wry humor as when she talks about real investigations being unlike “American cop shows on the telly, where the tough guys always got their man by the end of the hour.” Unfortunately, the things that bothered me outweighed the elements I did like. There were redundant references to Dawn meeting Alex, as well as characters feeling an instant recognition toward another, once even a dog. There were a lot of coincidences. A good deal of the book dealt with an unknown narrator telling a story – in italics. One element of the ending was way too predictable but well handled in spite of it and there were several good twists along the way. While I feel a stronger editor would have been a benefit, I like Crombie’s writing. This was a good, interesting, traditional police procedural and I plan on reading more of her books.AND JUSTICE THERE IS NONE (Pol Proc-Gemma James/Duncan Kincaid-England-Cont) – GCrombie, Deborah – 8th in seriesBantam Books, 2002, US Hardcover – ISBN: 9780553109733
BOTTOM LINE: #8 DI Duncan Kincaid/DI Gemma James, London; cosy police procedural with dark edges. A remarkable bit of storytelling, compelling and moving, with layers of plot and characters that seem very real. Crombie always delivers a good story, and this is one of her best. The entire book packs a punch, not just the ending, although that’s a doozy. And over it all is a sort of sadness, a sense of waste of human life and “chances” taken or not. Powerful stuff. Highly recommended, but you’d be best served reading this series in sequence. Handed a particularly nasty case concerning a trophy wife who has her throat cut in her driveway, Gemma has to work hard to keep up - there’s a lot going on in her life just now: the winter Holidays, her new house and relationship with Duncan and their blended family, and her pregnancy, which is proving to be a difficult one. We get to be inside both Gemma and Duncan’s heads as their current cases merge, as their families have just done. (view spoiler)[ Didn’t like the termination of her pregnancy, though. It was the only bit of predictable “business”. And it DID pack quite an emotional wallop at the end. (hide spoiler)]
Do You like book And Justice There Is None (2003)?
This is the eighth installment of the Kincaid/James series. Duncan and Gemma no longer work together. It's about a week before Christmas, Gemma gets a murder case. A woman was killed in her driveway. No one saw anything. Duncan thinks it's similar to a case he had a couple of months prior. He gets permission to work with Gemma on this case. They get nowhere. Then the woman's husband is murdered in the same way. These three people have to be connected in some way. Duncan and Gemma and their teams go back over everything again. Will they figure it out before another person dies?I liked this one. It has a bit of a twist in the plot!
—JoAnne
Fantastic! Four and a half stars. I wrote that Kinkaid & James #6 was my favourite so far in the series, but this one is even better, and I've become a total addict. This particular story has such an intricately twisted plot, that it kept me guessing to almost the very end. The main characters are endearing, the setting of Notting Hill and Portobello is interesting (pity there wasn't a little map like others in the series), and the 1960's swinging London flashbacks gently enhance the story. Altogether a very enjoyable read.
—Sarah
I was reading Nina Sankovitch’s Tolstoy and the Purple Chair the other day and came across the following reference to Deborah Crombie, whose novels I’ve been reading lately.Anne-Marie had just introduced me to the writer Deborah Crombie and her sleuths, Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James. She reread the series while I worked my way through, virgin and loving it. Crombie’s novels are like that, the kind of books so rich you want to re-read even on your deathbed. In this murder mystery, set in London’s Notting Hill neighborhood, the murdered woman is an unlikely victim. Young, beautiful, rich, liked by everyone, she is loved by a young antique dealer who wants her to leave her wealthy and powerful husband. Gemma Jones, newly promoted and with her own patch in Notting Hill, thinks the husband killed her. But when he, too, turns up dead, and killed in the same grisly fashion as his wife, Duncan Kincaid’s theory that the person who killed an antiques dealer a few months before is again at work.The newly introduced characters in this novel are colorful and charming and they will, some of them, remain friends of Gemma and Duncan and their boys in later books.2011 No 102
—Mary Ronan Drew
