Nineteenth in the modern-day police procedural series Duncan Kincaid & Gemma James, A KILLING OF INNOCENTS by Deborah Crombie is a delight. This long-running series shows absolutely no signs of slowing or diminished quality. Set primarily in London, this series follows Detective Superintendent Duncan Kincaid and Detective Inspector Gemma James of Scotland Yard. This married couple work in different areas of the police but have managed to tag-team on many of their investigations. Their work life precariously teeter-totters with their complicated home life, with three children in their blended family.
Deborah Crombie is spot-on in showing the contemporary difficulties that Duncan and Gemma face in their personal lives. The many supporting characters in this beloved series also have their own personal struggles, and Crombie adroitly weaves these into the overall narrative, even as she provides a captivating whodunit. Crombie always gives us a great mystery, but much of what I love about this series is the day-to-day challenges of life such as romances (going right, or wrong!), professional jealousy, family squabbles, and the like. Both Gemma and Duncan are so relatable, having cranky episodes and little marital spats, along with juggling family and friend obligations due to their investigative jobs.
Don’t think that Duncan Kincaid & Gemma James is a cozy sort of mystery series, however. The crimes and their professional investigation are nimbly displayed and then dissected. Here, a physician-in-training is murdered while walking home at the end of her shift, in a dark but busy public square. Soon several others in her orbit are killed or attempts on their lives are made. How do these murders fit together, and what could be the motive for these incisive stabbings? Gemma and Duncan along with their teams must pull together many disparate threads to track the culprit.
A KILLING OF INNOCENTS hits all the right notes for me. An absorbing police procedural with plenty of red herrings and investigative detail. The main two detectives are well-fleshed-out characters who seem similar to you and me, but they must pit their wits against crooks and murderers. The delightful interweaving of everyday life with all its messiness makes this series so relatable and endearing. Crombie capably dishes up another winner in A KILLING OF INNOCENTS.
On a rainy November evening, a young woman hurries through the crowd in London’s historic Russell Square. Out of the darkness, someone jostles her, then brushes past. A moment later, she stumbles, collapsing against a tree. When a young mother finds her body and alerts the police, Detective Superintendent Duncan Kincaid and his sergeant, Doug Cullen, are called to the scene. The victim, Sasha Johnson, is a trainee doctor at a nearby hospital, and she’s been stabbed.
Kincaid immediately calls his detective wife, Gemma James, who has recently been assigned to a task force on knife crime. Along with her partner, detective sergeant Melody Talbot, Gemma joins the investigation. But Sasha Johnson doesn’t fit the profile of the typical knife crime victim. Single, successful, daughter of a black professional family, she has no history of abusive relationships or any connection to gangs. She had her secrets, though, and Kincaid uncovers an awkward connection to his Notting Hill friends Wesley and Betty Howard.
As the detectives unravel Sasha’s tangled relationships, another stabbing puts London in a panic, and Kincaid’s team needs all their resources to find the killer stalking the dark streets of Bloomsbury.
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