Customer Reviews

Necessary as Blood

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

A young woman named Sandra Gilles leaves her child with a friend in London's colorful East End and promptly disappears. Then her husband, a Pakistani lawyer, is murdered. This is a particularly disturbing case for Insp. Gemma James of the Notting Hill C.D. and her partner, Supt. Duncan Kincaid of Scotland Yard. As they wade through a morass of evidence, conflicting stories, twisted motives, prejudice, and greed, they are ever more determined to protect the little girl at the center of the mystery.

This is the 13th entry in one of my all-time favorite British crime series. I read the first "Duncan-and-Gemma," A Share in Death (Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James Novels), when it was published in 1993, and every book since then has been a joy. Crombie gives us solid mystery stories along with the ever-growing (and ever more complicated) relationship between her two detectives and their children. NECESSARY AS BLOOD is British mystery at its best--by an author who happens to be American. If you love P. D. James, Ruth Rendell, Peter Robinson, Reginald Hill, Martha Grimes, and Elizabeth George, you'll love Deborah Crombie. Highly recommended.

In a year when "the new Laurie King" was a total cheat and "the new Margaret Maron" was barely there and "the new Sara Paretsky" was merely good, it's blissful to fall into the new Deborah Crombie. Crombie's characters - on-going and new - are vivid yet believable, while her ability to weave setting into plot just gets better and better.

Less dark than Ruth Rendell and more plot-driven than PD James, Crombie is that rare writer who can keep a series going without resorting to massive trauma in the lives of her main characters as a selling point. Crombie's Gemma James is now the primary character in the novel, and that's a very good thing. Although the series sometimes moves away from London, the metropolitan novels are my favorites. This time we get the Brick Lane Bangla-Angla community, the social services system, fabric art, and the whole question of what it means to be a Brit in the third millennium. Crombie makes excellent use of the epigraph, heading her chapters with quotes from an impressive East End bibliography. I always learn interesting stuff (a technical term there, sorry) when I read -- or reread -- one of her novels.

Only Donna Leon can rival Crombie at the art of making setting, plot, theme, and the personal lives of her main characters function as elegant parts of a perfect construction: the really good read.

I tried to read slow so it would last longer, but . . . .

Julia Walker's review of this book is spot on and I totally endorse everything she has to say. I just want to add a couple of things.

1. Because the Crombie series, like Donna Leon's equally brilliant Brunetti series, is so character driven, I strongly recommend reading the books in chronological order. Then, by the time you get to this one, the 13th in the series, your involvement with Gemma, Duncan, their families, friends, colleagues and how their personal histories have evolved will be firmly in place, greatly adding to the many pleasures you'll find here. Here's the list, in order: "A Share in Death," "All Shall Be Well," "Leave the Grave Green," "Mourn Not Your Dead," "Dreaming of the Bones," "Kissed a Sad Goodbye," "A Finer End," "And Justice There Is None," "Now May You Weep," "In a Dark House," "Water Like a Stone," "Where Memories Lie," and "Necessary as Blood."

2. This second comment is a bit off topic and relates to the atmospheric chapter header quotes that Walker mentions. Several are from Dennis Severs's book about his Spitalfields house at 18 Fogate Street. During my first trip to London in 1982 I spent an evening at one of Severs's otherworldly candlelight tours of his house and it remains one of my most memorable travel experiences; "Necessary as Blood" brought it all back for me. Any fans of this book enchanted with Crombie's portraits of today's East End and thinking of including it on an upcoming London visit should check out dennissevershouse online. Severs is no longer with us, but his house and its magical time capsule tours continue on Monday evenings, advance bookings required. For present day atmosphere, I recommend the marvelous 2007 indie movie "Brick Lane."

It's hard for a mystery novelist to sustain a long-running series with the same set of detectives. In some cases, I end up wondering just how many bodies some communities generate over the year; in other cases, the author himself or herself seems to be wearying of their task, and end up delivering predictable and ho-hum books. A few successfully develop new characters (Natasha Cooper has already done this once, the writing team of Charles Todd seems to be trying to do the same.)

Then there's Deborah Crombie, whose 13th offering in the series of police procedurals featuring Duncan Kincaid and his fiancee and fellow police officer Gemma James is one of her best yet. There are no fictional pyrotechnics, homicidal lunatics, no piling up of corpses at every turn -- there isn't even really a vast global conspiracy theory. There are just a collection of fallible and sometimes malicious or callous individuals, whose actions or inactions have consequences for all around them.

In this particular character-driven mystery, a young mother named Sandra Gilles simply vanishes one day, leaving her toddler daughter with a family friend for what she promises will just be an hour or two. Then, months later, her husband also disappears; Charlotte, the 3-year-old daughter, can say only that her Mummy went away and her Daddy went to look for her. Gemma and Duncan share mutual friends with Naz, Charlotte's father and a Pakistani-born lawyer, and are in on the case early, even before the first dead body shows up. From then on, they work together and separately to resolve the mystery and help create the best possible future for Charlotte, who, if they don't act, may end up living with her maternal grandmother despite the presence of two drug-dealing uncles and the fact that Sandra had no contact with her family.

The plot itself is complex but adeptly handled so that it never feels so; the characters are all plausible and the settings so vivid that I remain astonished that Crombie is an American and not a Londoner. There's nothing here to stretch the reader's credulity. Best of all, Crombie manages to blend the plot with the developments in Duncan's and Gemma's real lives (they are trying to find a way to marry that will keep everyone happy, as Gemma's mother must cope with a recurrence of her cancer -- disclosed very early on in the book, so not a spoiler!). There are no simple answers to either their personal challenges or to the mystery of what happened to Sandra or Naz, but Crombie ably walks the narrow line between giving away too many clues or emerging at the last moment with an improbable solution to the crime.

Highly recommended to anyone who likes character-driven mysteries. This isn't as elegantly written as P.D. James, or as complex as Elizabeth George's books, but anyone who relishes their characters should enjoy this series. It could be read as a stand-alone book, but there are frequent references throughout to events dealt with in previous episodes of the duo's personal and professional partnership, so I'd suggest starting your reading back with A Share in Death (Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James Novels), Crombie's debut, still in print more than 15 years later. Fans of the author will find this is one of the best of her recent books.

First Line: The streets were greasy with moisture.

I don't know of another mystery series that I read in which the characters' personal lives are every bit as important to me as the investigation. By this, the thirteenth book, I feel like an old family friend as I read about Scotland Yard's Detective Superintendent Duncan Kincaid and his Detective Inspector Gemma James who works out of the Notting Hill station in London. Everyone in their families wants Duncan and Gemma married as quickly as possible, but Gemma doesn't seem to be as keen. Then something happens that puts all thoughts of marriage out of her mind.

Two months previously, a talented textile artist named Sandra Gilles left her three-year-old daughter with a friend at a flower stall in an open market. She said she'd be back in a few minutes. She never returned. Now her husband, Naz Malik, is missing. When his body is found, Gemma is concerned not only with finding out what happened to Sandra and Naz, but in ensuring that their daughter is taken care of properly. Seeing her name on reports of the crime, Duncan Kincaid and his partner, Doug Cullen, decide to join in the investigation.

For those who care more for the story than the characters and the characters' lives, I would imagine that this book would be a disappointment. For me, it was a feast. The actual investigation was convoluted enough that I didn't guess what had happened, and I enjoyed the background history of London's East End that was skillfully woven into the story. Marriage plans, sick parents, and two of the most realistically drawn children in fiction all added to an extremely pleasurable read.

I read a lot of mystery series. I don't think there's any way in the world that I can ever finish them all. Normally it's a sign of how much I enjoy a series by how "caught up" I am. Crombie has written thirteen books in this series, and this is a review of number thirteen. The only negative thing about this Cathy-esque mark of respect is that now I have to wait for the next book to be published.

Guess I'm going to have to make a dent in some of those other series, eh? Duncan, Gemma-- HURRY UP!

Duncan and Gemma deliver again. This is not the best of the series but still an enjoyable read. The characters are believable as is the plot. It is involving and interesting. Love the whole series.

This book has a little of everything for everyone: Romance (Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James are stuttering toward the alter after umpteen books together-apart-together), crime (the trafficking of young girls, on the streets that Jack the Ripper walked no less), social commentary (Christian Pakistanis, ill-considered divorce, child custody hearings, failing parents, and yellow journalism), and mad dashes across London from Notting Hill to Whitechapel and back.

I don't tend to think of Deborah Crombie's work as being so densely packed with storylines but, to her credit, this book works on just about every level. She's got a lot of territory to cover and she does it with a break-neck pace and beautifully intricate plotting. And, yet again, she contrives a situation where Kincaid and James (and their superb supporting cast) not only work in concert but also step on each others' toes and cross each others' wires. What can I say? It makes for better tension and gives the omnipotent reader a chance to yell at the book, "what were you thinking?!"

And at the heart of this book is a beautiful little girl who has lost one parent and the other is missing. While everyone around her is focused on investigation, she needs comfort, care, food, and security. And she needs not to be the next victim.

Faithful Crombie readers will not be disappointed. Anyone thinking of picking her up for a tryout might be better served by starting with one of her earlier books. I think the first was "A Share in Death" but if you don't want to go back that far, "And Justice There is None" is probably my favourite of all Crombie's books. In an increasingly packed genre, she's still a standout.

Since Duncan Kincaid's first appearance, I've waited anxiously for each new installment. Over the years Deborah Crombie has crafted an interesting, intelligent series -- but for me, something wandered off track here.

There is a good mystery at the heart of this story. Unfortunately, there are also elements of fairy tale that I'd rather not find in this genre.

SPOILER ALERT.

For instance, the child who ends up central to the plot almost might have dropped straight from a Frances Hodgson Burnett narrative: abandonment, the threat of horrible caregivers, apparent salvation. Somehow, I already know that this child is going to feature heavily in the next book. It shouldn't be possible to see so far into a writer's future.

The young woman who works for Gemma turns out to have extraordinary resources for research, resources that turn out to be costly. She is a "poor little rich girl," a variation on the Burnett theme.

The grasping relatives are one dimensional, evil folk. The suffering mother turns out to be the real strength in a family. Gemma's friend, a therapist who is divorced or separated from her therapist husband, can't do divorce and joint custody with civility.

And Gemma's wardrobe and the effect of heat and hot car seats on her limbs are described over and over.

And Gemma turns out to have bought an extraordinarily beautiful dress just in time for... well, you know.

I've enjoyed this series. Perhaps it has run its course; perhaps the personal story lines have simply derailed it from mystery into romance. I'll give the next book a chance, but if the writer continues the series in this vein, it'll be back to re-reads of PD James and Ruth Rendell for me.

I love a series, literally I will watch or read anything in the form of a series. However I have read 13 books and I have come to realize that I don't really like this series. There was something I must have looked forward to at the end of each prior book: That's what we like about a seires, right? The charactor's more than each individual book plot?

I like Duncun Kincade as a charactor more than Gemma James. Since they have become a couple, their story line is reduced to dinner for the boys and what the dogs are doing.
Duncan seems to put up with Gemma butting into all of his cases. Seriously how often can she get away with investigating NONE of her own cases? Actually Duncan seems to put up with several short comings regarding Gemma. Including her inability to not become a sweaty mess with fly away hair and the wrong choice of shoes in every chapter. Really, is it often that hot in London? Really? That hot? That often? And no air conditioning? Anywhere? My point which is, admittedly hard to find, is that Duncan was a better main charactor and I am not sure when everything switched to Gemma's perspective. The first time I read Deborah Crombie was "Dreaming of the Bones" (which I enjoyed). Since that time I have gone back and read the books in order. I miss that Duncan Kincade.

Back to my point, Gemma is very annoying in this book. She puts every responsiblity in her life on hold in order to investigate a murder (not on her patch) and gather "dirt" on an orphan's remaining relatives. Gemma neglects her mother, her son, her significant other, Kit, and her beloved dog. Everyone and everything is neglected to focus on attempting to gather information to stop a toddler from being placed with a relative, which is also not her job and makes social services look lazy and very easy to "trick". I have not read the next book, but I am willing to bet there is a new member in the Kincade/James house hold......

My long winded point? I didn't like this book. I may have been slow on the uptake, as looking back it seems that I have not enjoyed the books since Gemma moved to the Notting Hill Station.

Continuing the Gemma James and Duncan Kincaid Series, Deborah Crombie focuses on two themes. First is the relationship between various characters, delving deeply into their psyches; second, the racial and ethnic changes in London's East End over the years. Both are keenly sensitive and perceptive.

At the same time, the novel remains true to the series' crime motif: a disappearance, a murder. and other crimes give the two Scotland Yard detectives and their staffs plenty to chew on. Artist Sandra Gilles disappears one afternoon, leaving her three-year-old daughter with a friend, saying she would only be a few minutes running an errand. A short time later, her husband is missing and later found murdered, leaving the child at the mercy of the system and causing Gemma to worry excessively about the girl's welfare.

These themes are intricately woven in a fluid tale with vivid descriptions of people, places and other elements to enhance the story. Another excellent chapter in the James-Kincaid series, and recommended.