All Shall Be Well

This is the second book in Deborah Crombie's "Kincaid and James" series and, since I thoroughly enjoyed the series debut, A Share in Death, I decided to continue following protagonists Scotland Yard Superintendent Duncan Kincaid and Sergeant Gemma James. Not only are there good mysteries to solve, but both characters are divorced and each privately entertains an attraction to the other, so that, too, will develop over time. Duncan has a lovely top floor flat in Hampstead and has become friends with the woman who lives on the floor below, Jasmine Dent, who is dying of cancer. They often spend evenings talking or watching a movie on TV, although Jasmine is a very private person and Duncan feels he knows little enough about her. He is surprised to return home one morning, after a 48-stint on a case, and find that Jasmine is dead. No one expected her to die so soon, certainly her friend from work, Meg, who visits Jasmine every day and who, it turns out, is the major beneficiary of Jasmine's will. When Meg reveals that Jasmine had recently decided to kill herself and asked Meg to be present when she did, but had then changed her mind, Kincaid began to suspect that this was not a death due to the cancer. Did Jasmine kill herself? She left no note and there were no empty vials of morphine found. Or did someone help her along? Kincaid files a suspicious death report and the post mortem does indeed show a lethal amount of morphine in her blood. Kirkus offers a rundown of the potential suspects: "...Jasmine's ineffectual brother Theo, who's failed at one small business after another; her basement neighbor Major Keith, a devoted gardener who served in India at the same time Jasmine was born; home-help nurse Felicity Howarth, who wants to refuse her thousand-pound legacy; and Meg's grasping boyfriend Roger Leveson-Gower, who's counting on her coming into money..."

Gemma is unsure whether Duncan had feelings for Jasmine that are driving his insistence on investigating further, but helps in interviewing persons of interest while Duncan gathers background information from people and from the journals Jasmine left behind. Publishers Weekly praises, "Written with compassion, clarity, wit and precision, this graceful mystery amply fulfills the promise of Crombie's debut novel..." Whodunit was a surprise to me.