Gemma James and Duncan Kincaid

A series by Deborah Crombie

For a lady that grew up in Texas, author Deborah Crombie has created a wonderful series that is placed in London and surrounding environs.  I discovered this series when I was busy crocheting baby blankets for friends and family.  I enjoy listening to audiobooks while I clean house or crochet and I downloaded the first title, A Share in Death.  I was immediately hooked and found myself listening to a book every two days.

Gemma is a divorced mom working as a sergeant under Detective Superintendent Kincaid of Scotland Yard.  Juggling life worries, as well as their cases, their human flaws, doubts and wonderful personalities come through clearly.  Though the story lines themselves deal with darkness, there is something so uplifting about these two.  It’s a bit refreshing that neither are alcoholics, drug addicts or on the take.  They are as normal as people can be considering what they deal with on a day-to-day basis. 

At the heart of each book is a typical horrible murder.  However, woven within the main story are always a couple of other stories taking place as the murder is investigated.  It could be a back story that gives you history of the area where the murder takes place or possibly about the family.  It could be a back story or even an ongoing story that involves Gemma and Duncan.  Now, some may feel it sounds as if there is too much going on to keep track of all the storylines.  The truth of the matter is that Crombie is a master at making you feel like you are accompanying these two along on their normal day.  As you settle into the story, you realize it’s no different than anyone else’s life.  We have our work, home and family stories and our friendship’s stories. 

Crombie’s descriptions of the British scenery are so three dimensional, it’s amazing she didn’t grow up in Great Britain.   It doesn’t matter if she takes us along on a shopping expedition on Portobello Road or driving through Scotland.  She gives you the full experience through her prose.

So far there are seventeen titles in the series.  I have listened to fourteen.  My one whine about the audios is the inconsistence of the narrators.  My favorite has been Michael Deehy.  He gives Duncan a wonderfully patient sounding voice that I love.  He even performs the female voices excellently.  Jenny Sterlin is another narrator.  Yes, she is female but gives an excellent performance of all the characters. 

I didn’t purchase these through Audible as I’m not a fan of the whole yearly fee and having to pay for each book on top of that.  I’m retired.  I have a fixed income.  I downloaded them from my library’s Overdrive account.  Contact your local library and they can hook you up.  I’m not saying every library has every title of this series.  Libraries pay for each title just as they would for a book.  I actually paid a fee to get a library card for a neighboring county library because they have a better selection of titles that I am interested in downloading.  I believe you can request a title be added just as you would a book.  Again, check with your library. 

If you haven’t discovered this series, I hope you try it and enjoy it as much as I have.