Kissed a Sad Goodbye by Deborah Crombie
Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James Series #6
Mystery
2001 Bantam Book (first published in 1999)
Finished on July 7, 2021
Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)
Publisher's Blurb:
Scotland Yard's Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James face their most haunting case yet when the past devastatingly intersects with the present....
The call from Scotland Yard couldn't have come at a worse time for Detective Superintendent Duncan Kincaid. He has promised the weekend to Kit, the eleven-year-old son of his ex-wife. The son he never knew he fathered—who doesn't yet know Kincaid's true identity. But Duncan's best intentions are shattered by an investigation that draws him in and swiftly consumes him. It seems to begin with the discovery of the body of a beautiful young woman in an East London park. But Kincaid and Sergeant Gemma James will discover that this case has long roots that reach far back into the past, and that resentments which should have been decades buried still have the power to hurt—and maybe even the capacity to kill.
Another entertaining installment to Deborah Crombie's Kincaid/James series. Even though I spent over a month reading this mystery, (at times only a few pages every few days), I never lost track of the characters and their relationships to one another. That's rare for me with any book that's filled with numerous characters. I enjoyed the alternating time lines especially since the flashbacks were set during WWII. This was a much better mystery than in the previous book (Dreaming of the Bones), which I didn't care for very much at all.
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ReplyDeleteAh, I was a little bit confused about which book it was that you loved when I started reading your early review (not looking at the full URL, which would have told me it was Dreaming of the Bones and not Kissed a Sad Goodbye). Thanks for sharing the link. I'll have to go back and read your reviews for the earlier books in this series. Yes, the ebb and flow of blogging is apparent in my posts, too.
DeletePerhaps I have mentioned this before, but my sister in law has highly recommended Deborah Crombie. I love that it kept your attention while reading over a long span of time; that says quite a lot! It is getting harder for me to remember long lists of characters, so I often write them on the inside back cover if I own the book. My mother just gave back the first of the Cazaulet Chronicles for being too “peopled”, but I haven’t tried it yet. Such a long list on my shelves…😌
ReplyDeleteMeredith, I was surprised that I never lost interest in this mystery, even over the course of many weeks. Like you, I will often make a list of the characters if it feels like there are going to be more than normal. I am not familiar with the Cazaulet Chronicles, so I'm off to search Goodreads to learn more. Hope you are well and enjoying your summer!
DeleteHere’s a link from the publisher site about the Cazulet Chronicles (which I misspelled above 🙄). They came to my attention from Barnes and Noble’s daily deal, and I do love a family saga. But, I haven’t started them yet.
Deletehttps://www.panmacmillan.com/blogs/fiction/cazalet-chronicles-books-in-order
Thanks for the link! I like the cover art on these and may give the first book a try.
DeleteI think it's difficult when we just get brief chunks of time to read and therefore a book takes an extra long time. That's great that you could keep track of it and still enjoyed it.
ReplyDeleteHelen, I enjoyed it so well that I'm anxious to get to the next installment in the series. I'm not rushing myself though, as I'm thoroughly enjoying some brain candy (Still Me by Jojo Moyes), which is a perfect summer read.
DeleteSo many great sounding authors that I have never tired. Glad you enjoyed this one. I like when a story is so good that you can recall the people and details after time in between.
ReplyDeleteDiane, this is a good series, but it's taken me a while to grow fond of the main characters and care about their futures. I'm enjoying the mysteries, but not quite as much as the Louise Penny books. That's my favorite mystery series, thus far.
DeleteI really have enjoyed this series over the years, but I agree with you on your previous comment about Louise Penny--she is better than almost anyone in the business. As I think about it though, it took me a little while on Three Pines to love it as much as I do now. Three Pines got better and better with each book!
ReplyDeleteJenclair, it took me a while to get interested in the Three Pines series, too, but it's now my favorite in the genre. Crombie's series is quite good, too, but it feels like it lacks the depth of Penny's books, maybe because there are only two main characters to focus on. It will be fun to see how I like the next book. I may have reached the point at which they start getting better than the previous installment.
DeleteI'm glad you enjoyed this one much more. I did read this one and I just really like the relationship between Duncan and Gemma. One thing about these books is that I really like to read the hardback books because they always have maps! Love those.
ReplyDeleteIliana, I'm enjoying the series and seeing how the relationship between Duncan and Gemma is growing. This mass market edition had the maps, which was fun to flip back and forth to, as I read.
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