Search Results for: garden of lamentations

In a London private garden, accessible only by those whose homes ring the quiet space, a young woman who worked as a nanny in one of the houses is found on a warm May morning, laid out like a princess, but strangled to death. Suspicion must rest on one of the occupants, especially when Detective Gemma James discovers that a few months earlier, a child in another of the houses died. Gemma has a personal connection to the case: a good friend has called her in, and her child dances at the same studio with the boy nannied by the murdered woman.

Meanwhile Gemma’s husband, Duncan Kincaid, is finding himself pulled backwards into cases supposedly already solved. His old boss, Dennis Childs, wants to meet him in secret, and refers to corruption at the heart of the Metropolitan Police force. Dennis is attacked and left for dead on the way home, but fortunately is found by some passing teens shortly after the attack and transferred to hospital. What could he have been referring to? Duncan begins to investigate, but the problem of looking for corruption is knowing whom you can trust. As he discovers connections between a trail of bodies, he has to face the danger he may be putting himself, his family and his colleagues into.

Crombie does a good job of creating an entire world, with characters that play bigger roles in certain books and move into the background in others. For example, Kincaid’s colleagues Doug and Melody both have major story lines, especially Melody, whose boyfriend is touring Europe with his up-and-coming band (including a young and attractive woman), and whose relationship with her parents is strained.

Garden of Lamentations is the 3rd book I have read in the series following the lives of married police detectives Gemma James and Duncan Kincaid, and I love them and want to read more. Each book contains two major cases that the detectives are busy solving, but in the background is their relationship, their family, their friends. I want to know the story behind Charlotte, their adopted daughter who has suffered so much in her young life–the books I’ve read allude to it, but don’t give quite enough of a summary. The current story is more than enough to keep you turning page after page compulsorily, long after a sensible adult person would have gone to bed. In my review of the last  book in the series, To Dwell in Darkness (linked to my review), I also mention this lack of backstory. I have decided it is a brilliant marketing technique. I’m pretty sure to go to Powells over Thanksgiving Break, and I’m going to pick up some copies of earlier works.

Overall, you can read these books just fine without having read the previous. However, To Dwell in Darkness and Garden of Lamentations are linked, with Kincaid following out the story begun in the earlier work. I recommend reading them together. Right now, the first is available for $6.99 at Amazon, and it offers a delightful evening away from holiday stress, maybe while your family cleans up Thanksgiving dinner? It could happen. Then you can get Garden of Lamentations for Christmas.

Over the past few years, I have reviewed a few of Deborah Crombie’s police procedurals, following the lives of married Detective Inspectors Gemma James and Duncan Kincaid. (Here are my reviews of To Dwell in Darkness and Garden of Lamentations and here’s a review I didn’t write, about a book I’ve also read, No Mark Upon Her) Each time, I have commented on how intriguing I found their back stories, going on through the series in the background of whichever cases are currently consuming their working hours, which provide the framework for each new book in the series. But I wanted to know more about them, and while each book refers to the previous one, it wasn’t giving me enough background. This Christmas, my family and I traveled the 1200 miles to the grandparents, to surprise my mother-in-law for Christmas, and I managed to get through 3 of the James/Kincaid books! Happiness. Of course I’m left wanting even more, but at least I now know some of the backstory. And so I am going to share it with you, because you care. (I know you do)

1. Who is Hazel? Hazel is Gemma’s friend and erstwhile landlady, before she and Duncan moved in together. Gemma and her toddler son Toby rent a garage flat, and she and Hazel are close friends, as Toby is inseparable from Hazel’s daughter Holly. When Gemma and Duncan move in together in And Justice There Was None, Gemma’s first thought is how to break to news to Hazel. She is also the one who brings beef stroganoff in To Dwell In Darkness.
2. Where does Kit come from? Kit is Duncan’s son from his first marriage, but he didn’t know his wife was pregnant when they separated and she never told him. Duncan meets Kit (then 11) for the first time in Dreaming of the Bones, when his ex-wife Victoria calls him in to investigate a supposed suicide by an author 5 years earlier. Victoria is now writing a biography about her. Vic has remarried, but it is soon obvious that Kit is actually Duncan’s son–he’s the spitting image of his father. I won’t tell you about how he comes to be living with Duncan and Gemma, but it’s really good.
   
3. Why so many animals? This is partly answered in And Justice There Was None, when the duo move in together. Kit already has Tess, the dog he found in the Tesco parking lot when he ran away from his grandparents in Dreaming of the Bones. Duncan has a cat. And in this one, Gemma acquires a spaniel while she is investigating a vet’s office.
4. Where does the mixed-race foster/adopted child come from? I don’t know yet, but for the moment I need to get back to the stack of books I’m supposed to be reviewing! But you can find out for yourself. Crombie’s series are readily available, and I think they’re a cut above a lot of novels being published today–with relatable, likable characters and crisp, gripping narratives that deal with real issues in our world today without losing the charm of being books you can relax over.

I will give you just the briefest summation. In Dreaming of the Bones, Kincaid reconnects with his ex, who walked out on him 12 years earlier. Now she’s an English professor writing a biography of a poet who died 5 years earlier, but she’s not happy about the death, which was ruled a suicide. Action moves back and forth a bit between the 60s, when the poet was a student at Cambridge, and present day. I really liked this one! (published in 1997; it’s book 5 in the series)

In A Finer End, Kincaid and James don’t appear till relatively late in the book. This one’s a bit different. It’s set in Glastonbury, where a seemingly normal man begins receiving messages from an 11th-century monk. I expected this to get all explained away, but it actually turns out to be real. Still, the book keeps its feet on firm ground mostly, and I still enjoyed it. (This is book 7; published in 2001)

And Justice There is None might have been my favorite of the 3. It begins in Portobello Road in the 60s, when West Indian families began moving in next to Polish and German immigrants and racial tensions ran high. Now Gemma is in charge of that particular bit of London, and the crime that’s been committed seems to have its roots in the decades earlier. I liked how this one really kept me guessing, and how it turned out I was right but not for the reasons I thought. (book 8; 2002)

Have you read this series? Let me know! We can discuss our favorite books in comments!