Customer Reviews

Mourn Not Your Dead

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

After an inauspicious beginning, Crombie's Kincaid/James series improves with every book. 'Mourn Not Your Dead', 4th in the series, is as good a police procedural you're likely to find.

Crombie uses her characters and plot in some unexpected and interesting ways. This installment's victim is a senior police officer. Crombie uses this instance to shed light on the inner workings of the Metropolitan Police. The case is set in an English country village and Crombie uses the setting to give us a new look into English country life. The intersecting lives and loss of life in this village are presented in fresh, never predictable and, one senses, quite accurate ways.

Sometimes, mystery/crime series can be a bit like watching 'Touched by an Angel'. The formula never varies, the pace never varies, characters are predictable and two-dimensional at best. You will feel mad, glad, sad and afraid at all the usual points. This is NOT SO with Crombie's Kincaid/James series, especially installments 3 and 4.

I'm on to #5 in the series "Dreaming of the Bones" which was a NY Times Notable Book of the year when it was published -- a rare acheivement by a crime series novel. If Crombie stays on track -- and the Times's opinion indicates she has -- this should be a winner.

When Scotland Yard is called to investigate the murder of police commander Alastair Gilbert, Superintendent Duncan Kincaid and Sergeant Gemma James are assigned the case. Complicating the investigation is the relationship between Kincaid and Gemma, who just recently shared a passion-filled evening together. At the onset of the investigation, Gemma tells Kincaid that it is over between them, leaving him badly hurt. ......As the duo starts to dig into the background of Alastair, they find a different picture then the public image of a model citizen and cop he presents. They learn that Alastair ignored the rules, his wife planned to leave him, and that his neighbors despised him for his rancorous and dominating personality. As more clues are uncovered and a suspect confesses, the case becomes even more unsettling to the couple. Adding to their disquieting feelings, is the pair's personal dilemma about which direction their relationship should take. ......Mourn Not Your Dead is a very interesting Scotland Yard mystery novel that will thrill fans of the genre because of the lead protagonists' struggle with a difficult investigation, personal ethics, and a shaky relationship. Like her first three novels, Deborah Crombie's fourth mystery deserves wide readership. .......Harriet Klausner

If you like well-plotted, well-written police procedurals served up with a healthy dollop of character-driven writing, pick up this and all the other books is this engaging series. You'll find yourself equally interested in the solving the crime and in the personal relationship between crime-fighting partners Gemma James and Duncan Kinkaid.

At first I wasn't enjoying Gemma and Duncan Kincaid, but the series has been getting better with each entry, and this book is the best so far. My biggest complaint in the previous entries was that Duncan Kincaid seemed to be a "lame duck". In this book we find a stronger, more rounded Kincaid, and it certainly makes the book better. This is a stylish mystery done in the British procedural style. We have Duncan and Gemma investigating the brutal murder of a high-ranking police officer. The murder places them in the middle of a small English Village (Surrey). Village politics are apparent here, but there is also danger and psychological undercurrents, and before Duncan and Jemma can solve the case they are placed right in the middle of this, and at imminent danger to themselves. This is a solid police procedural.

This is a fine series. It took quite a while to get the clues which are there, but they aren't! Gemma begins to come around too. Reading these fine mysteries in order is helpful especially waiting on long lines at the airport. The British feeling is so there! The characters are interesting. Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James are very human and its fun to watch their progress.

This mystery seemed to be as much about relationships (mother-daughter, husband-wife, lovers or police professionals?, father-son, male-female friends) as about solving the murder of a police official. I enjoyed the way the residents of the town of Holmbury St. Mary took on a life and contributed to the atmosphere of the setting. I gave it four stars not five for lack of suspense and excitement.

Scotland Yard Superintendent Duncan Kincaid and Sergeant Gemma Jones return in Deborah Crombie's fourth installment of this series. As the book begins, Jones is regretting her intimate encounter with Kincaid, which occurred at the end of the previous book in the series, "Leave the Grave Green". She knows that it's a career mistake for a subordinate to sleep their boss, especially if the subordinate is a female police officer.

Crombie, a native of Texas, can write a police procedural with psychological undertones as well as any of the best. Her writing is as authentically British as two other American authors, Elizabeth George and Martha Grimes.

Alastair Gilbert, a Scotland Yard Commander, is found dead in his home. He is disliked by almost everyone in the village of Holmbury St. Mary in Surrey. Claire, his widow and Lucy, his stepdaughter, seem to take the murder in stride. Before he married Claire, Gilbert was involved in investigating the death of her first husband. Brian Genovase, the local innkeeper, hated Gilbert because Gilbert persecuted his son Geoff. There are other suspects who had a motive to kill Gilbert. And the villagers have secrets that they are reluctant to reveal.

As they investigate, Kincaid and Jones must struggle to resolve their relationship and keep it from affecting the investigation. With its focus on the characters and their hidden relationships, "Mourn Not Your Dead" goes beyond the standard clues, alibis and inconsistent statements that drive most police procedurals. A highly recommended book which can be read as a stand-alone, but you may want to start with the first book in the series "A Share of Death" to get all the background.

Normally I enjoy the classic murder mystery rather than the police procedural, and frequently I stick to authors I already know until I run out of their work. I had never read any of Ms Crombie's mysteries before, but since the title Mourn Not Your Dead grabbed my attention, I couldn't resist. Those old tips to authors about using catchy titles to sell books must be true. The author must have forgotten rule #2, however, "grab their attention in the opening few sentences," because even the first few pages were a little too slow to impress me. I almost set it aside but changed my mind. What brought about the decision wasn't a snappy dialogue or memorable and emotive descriptive detail but the fact that I gradually became more engaged with the characters, though not at first the central characters.

The list of suspects and collateral personalities was what captured my interest because each was a flawless creation in its own right. The author was very good at creating individuals who exuded a "past," often a sad and hurt past, and I found it difficult to put the book down without knowing first what their secret hurt had been. The understanding that humans are very social animals and that there is nothing more interesting to a person than other people's lives is a vary valuable one. As I read, not only did I learn that people had indeed suffered from some private pains, but that some of those emotional injuries were staggering. Furthermore, each of the characters had a good lesson to teach about reality, learning, moving forward, and survival. My absolute favorite character was Madeleine Wade, who reminded me that if people don't see through to our "inner beauty" maybe it's because we don't see through to it ourselves!

The two central characters seemed at first the typical "police person with baggage" that I've come to be rather impatient with over the years. Unlike the quirkey Inspector Barnaby Midsomer Murders: Set 15, Faithful Unto Death: A Chief Inspector Barnaby Novel (Chief Inspector Barnaby Novels) and his family, individuals like Inspector Richard Jury The Man with a Load of Mischief, Inspector Frost Inspector Frost in the city, A Touch of Frost - Season 1, Inspector Lynley A Great Deliverance (Inspector Lynley), The Inspector Lynley Mysteries - Series 6 and Inspector Morse The First Inspector Morse Omnibus: The Dead of Jericho, Service of All the Dead, the Silent World of Nicholas Quinn, Inspector Morse: Dead on Time - Collection Set none of whom ever seem to learn from the misfortunes in their lives or to create lasting bonds with anyone, lead one to think to oneself "get a life" or "get a therapist!" I was pleasantly surprised to find that, while the two detectives in Ms Crombie's story do indeed have baggage, they were people who managed to learn from the inspiration of others in their world to come to terms with their own problems. (Could Ms Crombie herself be a therapist?) I can only hope that they continue to learn and grow.

I enjoyed this--not the first of the series I find--and expect to read others soon.

this picks up right after the events of Leave the Grave Green..quite literally..days have passed since the closing chapters of Kinkaid's and Jame's latest case...considering how things ended up between them in 'Green, matters between the two during the case at hand get rather interesting indeed

Alastair Gilbert, one of the top brass of Scotland Yard turns up dead in his own kitchen...Duncan and Gemma draw the case...what they encounter when arriving on the scene is a small village of people who are very tight knit...a community that protects its own....both people and secrets...

what's great about this novel is that EVERYBODY is a suspect...it's also far reaching...suspects aren't just limited to the current time and location of the crime...clues lead all the way to London where Gilbert was an investigating officer in his widow Clair's FIRST husbands hit-and-run investigation...delving into this brings more clues, more questions and more suspects for Duncan and Gemma to investigate....not too far into it they're both questioning everything they've come to know about the town, its inhabitants, the victim and his seemingly fragile wife...

as with the previous novels in the series, not only is the mystery engaging with plenty of twists right up to the very end but the minor players are as three dimensional and fleshed out as the main players, whether they show up in several chapters or mere paragraphs...the local vicar, bar owner, even a local massage therapist/psychic are all a joy to read...

and now there's that big elephant in the room that nobody seems to have an easy time addressing...said elephant being the state of Duncan and Gemma's relationship after the shocking (yet enjoyable) conclusion to Leave the Grave Green...their relationship is strained..both professionally and personally and that is a big undercurrent in the book throughout...can they rectify their working relationship? Can things ever be the same? You'll just have to read it and find out ;)

I'm very pleased to have finally gotten around to reading this long running series..but, if you're reading this chances are you've already read the previous novels so I'm not telling you anything you don't already know..and if you haven't read this one yet? Do yourself a favor and do so! Very enjoyable series!

I had read one or two of this series years ago, but a used bookstore owner, recently recommended Deborah Crombie, and I read the series in order. I loved it, the characters weren't perfect, just human, and the plots were good. I'm looking forward to the new one in the fall.