A Share in Death

Deborah Crombie is a new author to me and this is the first of her "Kincaid and James" series, which I thoroughly enjoyed. She has won several mystery awards for her books and there are now 19 in the series, so I can do a lot of reading. Crombie was born in Dallas, Texas but lived in both Scotland and England and writes detective stories set in Great Britain. Protagonist Duncan Kincaid is a Supervisor with  Scotland Yard and has been gifted by a cousin with a week's stay in a posh country time-share in Yorkshire. Work has been hectic and he is looking forward to time away from murder and mayhem. Except, of course, the assistant manager of the resort, Sebastian, is murdered shortly after Duncan arrives. The local man in charge of the investigation, DCI Nash, is absolutely hostile to Kincaid's presence and attempted help. It's clear to Duncan that the death was not a suicide as Nash insists. Kincaid had only known Sebastian a short time, but liked his sense of humor and kindness toward one of the teenage guests, so he quietly begins his own lines of inquiry. There are several families, couples and singles staying at Followdale House--some are regular time share owners and a few have come for the first time. It seems there are rather a lot of intrigues among the guests, and the situation is confounded by a second death, this time of an elderly single lady who had hinted to Kincaid that she saw something the night of Sebastian's murder. Kincaid struggles to find a connection between the two victims. He calls on his sergeant, Jemma James, back at the Yard to do some digging into the guests' backgrounds. Well written, well developed characters that one can empathize with or hate as the case may be. Love anything set in England.

Publishers Weekly calls it a "polished mystery." Here's the short version of the guest list from Kirkus: "political hopeful Patrick Rennie and his well-connected wife Marta; endearing spinster sisters Penelope and Emma MacKenzie; ex-army twit Edward Lyle and his long-suffering wife Janet; and attractive scientist Hannah Alcock, who has her own hidden agenda at Followdale."