August 5, 2002
There's more truth than humor in Crombie's eighth thriller set in contemporary London. When someone does in Dawn Arrowood, the young, pregnant wife of a wealthy antiques dealer, in her soigné
Notting Hill home, Inspector Gemma James is put in charge of the investigation. Gemma's lover, Det. Supt. Duncan Kincaid, believes the murder is the work of a serial killer, but Gemma suspects the victim's husband, Karl Arrowood. Despite their combined efforts, the slasher strikes again. Fearful of igniting a new Jack the Ripper–style panic, Duncan and Gemma soon find themselves at odds when their investigations become linked in startling, unexpected ways, culminating in an exciting denouement with serious undercurrents. Crombie keeps the action moving throughout, providing a cook's tour of London, from Tower Bridge to Portobello Market, as well as plenty of gruesome detail ("Kincaid felt the bile rise in the back of his throat as he squatted, using his pocket torch to illuminate Dawn Arrowood's motionless form"). There's some amusing sociological commentary interspersed throughout, plus the occasional frisson ("A jogger brushed past, startling him—a tall, slender, hooded figure. Alex felt a shock of familiarity, but when he turned, the man had vanished"). The result is a competently plotted, reasonably engaging mystery that blazes no new pathways, but keeps the reader involved all the way to its predictably sanguinary conclusion. (Sept. 3)FYI:The author has been nominated for Edgar, Agatha and Macavity awards. The Independent Mystery Booksellers Association named Crombie's
Dreaming of the Bones one of the 20th century's best mystery novels.
August 12, 2002
In Crombie's eighth masterly police procedural featuring Scotland Yard Superintendent Duncan Kincaid and Inspector Gemma James, the pair's relationship deepens. With the progression of Gemma's pregnancy (revealed in A Finer End), they consolidate households while working together to solve three murders. Dawn Arrowood, wife of prominent Notting Hill antiques dealer Karl, 25 years her senior, is newly pregnant and is having an affair when she is killed (her throat cut, her lung pierced) outside her home. It's no longer an isolated case when Kincaid finds similarities in the murder of antiques dealer Marianne Hoffman two months earlier, and police lose a prime suspect when Karl himself is found dead. The earlier history of a young woman, threaded through the narrative, becomes part of the intricate weave of the lives of the small cast of characters and the revelation of the damage done to so many by one man's ruthlessness. If the level of coincidence is high, it's easily forgiven owing to native Texan Crombie's skill in fashioning a supremely satisfying traditional British mystery, updated with Gemma the modern career woman juggling her life as well as her cases. Essential for mystery lovers, particularly for Anglophiles and fans of P.D. James. Michele Leber, Fairfax Cty. P.L., VA
Copyright 2002 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
August 1, 2002
This atmospheric novel is as much a splendid depiction of London's Notting Hill Road district as it is a harrowing murder mystery. Crombie weaves the cafe and pub owners and the stall keepers in Notting Hill Market into the story, giving it a feeling of groundedness that many contemporary mysteries lack. In the eighth novel starring Scotland Yard Detective Superintendent Duncan Kincaid and his former sergeant, now Detective Inspector Gemma James, the pair's complicated relationship (Gemma is pregnant but still reluctant to join households) threatens to spill over into their parallel investigation of the murder in Notting Hill of the pretty, young, and pregnant wife of a successful antiques dealer. Kincaid, who investigated a similar throat slashing two months previously, believes this is the work of a serial killer who is gaining confidence in his craft. Gemma believes the murderer to be the victim's control-freak husband or the about-to-be-dumped boyfriend. Steady suspense, building to an explosive ending.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2002, American Library Association.)