Where Memories Lie

WHERE MEMORIES LIE by Deborah Crombie is Book #12 in the Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James mystery series. I find this series to be very well-written, interesting, intriguing and well-paced. There are several ‘back stories’ involved which come together in the end due to the detecting skills of Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James and their staffs.
Part mystery, part police procedural, part crime drama, part historical fiction, the series makes for very good reading. The personal relationship between Duncan and Gemma makes an interesting backdrop.
WHERE MEMORIES LIE begins in Nazi Germany. DI Gemma James goes to the aid of friend, Erika Rosenthal, when a lost diamond brooch (created by Erika’s father) turns up in a London auction house.
I would heartily recommend this title and this series. ( )

Erika Rosenthal, a friend of Scotland Yard Detective Inspector Gemma James, asks for assistance in a personal matter. The favor involves Gemma looking into a brooch created by Erika’s jeweler father and probably stolen by the Nazis early in World War II. The brooch is up for sale at a high-end auction house and Erika would like to stop the sale until the brooch is investigated.

But soon someone who’s involved with the sale is dead – and that’s not the only murder. Gemma’s domestic partner Detective Superintendent Duncan Kincaid asks to be assigned to the murder case and Gemma – on personal leave because of her mother’s serious illness – tags along to help. Much to the chagrin of Kincaid’s sergeant Doug Cullen.

A secondary plot – related to the main plot – weaves its way throughout the book. Until the ties between the two plots are revealed later in the book, the secondary plot has a tendency to muddle the main plot, not enlighten readers. I’m pretty sure there’s another way for the author to provide background, and I wish Ms. Crombie would have taken a different route.

Still, I love Deborah Crombie’s books and Where Memories Lie doesn’t change that. I’ve been reading the series out of order, something I don’t recommend. ( )

One of the things I love about this series is how Crombie weaves secondary characters in and out of the various books (that's also why this is one series I would always recommend reading in order). In this installment, Gemma's friend Erika Rosenthal takes a more primary role than she has before, as the story examines how incidents from her past during and after World War II are fueling a series of murders in the present day. ( )

When a brooch that belonged to her neighbor Erika's family appears in an auction catalog, Gemma is asked to unofficially look into how it came to be in the auction. The story of the brooch begins during the Holocaust. A young woman from the auction house who took in the brooch turns up dead as do others connected to it. Duncan, Gemma, and their colleagues at the Yard and the metropolitan police find clues that keep the reader interested and involved. Gemma's mother is diagnosed with leukemia in this installment as well. Crombie is one of my favorite authors. This installment in the long-running series does not disappoint. ( )

I realize that I've been reading a lot of romance novels lately, so that's what's on my mind, but even if I hadn't, it would have been hard not to notice that *this* is how you write a love story.

First, the mystery -- first class, as is typical with Deborah Crombie. Solid characters, solid story, and an ending that actually took me by surprise. I'm afraid that anything else I say will be a spoiler, so I'll just leave the mystery part at that.

As to the love story, or stories, I should say, since it seemed to actually track the cradle to grave cycle of relationships by using four different couples to show it. At the core, of course, was Kincaid and James. Not until the very end did it become clear what was happening in their relationship, but I found the ending to be beautiful and touching in a way that I hadn't expected. Then there was the storyline with Gemma's parents, the very tentative relationship (that may or may not have a future) between Doug Cullen and Melody Talbot, and then the relationship that is core to the mystery itself, that of Gemma's friend Erika Rosenthal and her husband, the story of which largely takes place in 1952.

All in all, a rich and engaging book with many layers throughout, that makes me want to go back to the beginning of the series and read it straight through. ( )