Duncan Kincaid took the lead in the first of Deborah Crombie's mysteries, and now it's time for Gemma James to solve a personal mystery mostly on her own. Her friend Holly has invited her to a cooking weekend in Scotland and still recovering physically and emotionally from her trauma-induced stillbirth, Gemma is glad for the break from home. Once they arrive, Gemma realizes her friend was also using her as cover for her burgeoning affair with old flame Douglas Brodie, a whiskey distiller whose family had a centuries old rivalry with Holly's family. Further complicating matters, Holly's boarding school roommate co-owns the B&B where they're staying and Holly's cousin (who worked for Douglas) is another one of the guests. When Douglas is murdered, everyone at the B&B except Gemma has the motive, opportunity, or both to have committed the crime and, working with the resentful local police and with late help from Duncan, she identifies the culprit. Crombie intersperses the present-day narrative with Holly's ancestor's diary entries so the reader knows more than the detective but not so much that I solved the case more easily than Gemma. There's also a subplot (Duncan's son Kit's grandmother is suing for custody and Kit's putative father in Toronto is remarrying) but it's well integrated, feeling more like the day-to-day pressures Gemma feels as part of a blended family.
No comments:
Post a Comment