Kincaid is in a pub waiting for Doug Cullen for a debrief and sees a woman at a near table who looks like a doctor and appears to be waiting for someone as well. Doug comes, and the woman leaves. A short time later, Kincaid gets a call that a woman has been knifed in Russell Square not far from where they are. Doug and Kincaid quickly head there. They find the woman who had been waiting for someone in the pub with another woman trying and failing to resusitate her. The five year old son of the woman saw a man in a hood bump into the knifed woman and told his mother she needed help. Kincaid recognizes the dead woman as the woman he saw in the pub.

They soon find that the killed woman, Sasha, was a trainee doctor and that she was killed with something like an ice pick. Doug is looking through her purse, when her phone rings. Doug answers it and finds it's her flatmate, Tully Gibbs. He goes to see Tully to find out how to contact Sasha's parents. The police soon find out that Sasha had a younger brother who seems to be in trouble and is working some for Tully's brother who runs an upscale bar. When the autopsy shows Sasha was pregnant, they wonder if that may have something to do with her being killed and it wasn't easy to find who might have made her pregnant.

The plot is quite complicated, and it is a very difficult case to solve with several complications. When another person who worked with Sasha is killed it isn't clear if the murders were related. They also find a murder similar to Sasha's from another town about four years before. The book is very exciting and difficult to put down. Everything comes to a head in the next to last chapter and the two people who figured out who the killer was were almost killed themselves!

This book and the series are just a twisty delight. I just wish that Deborah Crombie could write a little faster and more often. These mysteries are among my very favorites. I’ve been hooked since the first title, A Share in Death, was published in 1993. I have enjoyed the development of the characters how their various relationships have developed. I can’t recommend this author and this series enough. Now I just have to wait patiently (ok impatiently!) for the next book.

I loved A Killing of Innocents. It hit all the right notes for me -- a twisty mystery that I didn't guess the solution to, a community of suspects rich with humanity and suspicion, tantalizing updates to the lives of Crombie's whole cast of characters, and of course some quality time with Duncan and Gemma and family. This is a terrific 19th installment in a terrific series!

A fatal stabbing has Detective Superintendent Duncan Kincaid and his team scrambling to determine who killed the young trainee doctor. As Kincaid’s wife’s new job has her and Melody studying knifing statistics, all are involved in chasing leads and researching backgrounds. A second stabbing must be connected, but how? I always enjoy Crombie’s Kincaid and Gemma stories, but this one has extra appeal. Highlights for me include Gemma struggling with juggling the kids and realizing she doesn’t like her new assignment, multiple possible reasons for the stabbing, and insight into Kincaid’s team beyond Doug Cullen. Highly recommended.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for and ARC. All opinions expressed are my own.

This is a wonderful addition to this excellent series of police-procedural mysteries. We see many of Crombie's usual strengths: well drawn characters, tempting red herrings, churn and changes in relationships among an attractive set of recurring characters, and a clever solution, which is a bit of a surprise but for which the clues were there. Her style flows well and reads very nicely, and changes in POV are well timed. My favorite mystery of 2022.

Having read — and enjoyed — every book in this series, I eagerly awaited this newest addition, and it did not disappoint! After Sasha Johnson, a young female doctor, is mysteriously murdered in the midst of a bustling London square, it is up to Duncan Kincaid (with a bit of help from his wife, Gemma James) to lead the investigation in what exactly happened and why. Couple that with the murder of another staff member from the same hospital and Sasha’s tangled relationships and you have the basis for another intricately-plotted mystery from Deborah Crombie.

Reading the latest in this excellent, long-running series of police procedurals is like hearing from old friends and learning what has been going on in their lives, a trait that definitely makes this series special. I know that I look forward to the next installment and hope that it is soon in coming!.

While waiting for his Sargent in a pub Duncan notices an attractive young woman nearby. She's busy on her phone and leaves soon after Doug arrives. When Duncan and Doug receive a call about a knifing they are shocked to see that the same woman has been fatally stabbed. Her id shows that she's Sasha Johnson, a junior doctor at a local hospital. Duncan contacts his wife, Gemma who is tracking knife crime in London. Gemma is missing active crime investigation so is happy to be part of the case.
When another hospital staff member is killed by knifing soon after, the detectives begin by questioning hospital staff. They uncover an outwardly expanding circle of possible suspects including Sasha's brother, Tyler.
This is the 19th in the Duncan Kincaid & Gemma James series and it's topnotch! It's a perfect balance of police procedure and the couple's personal life that involves parenting three children while working demanding jobs.
It helps to have read the previous titles in the series in order to understand the relationships among the characters.
Thanks to NetGalley and Wm. Morrow for the opportunity to read this book.

Crombie offers us an intricate and engrossing entry in this long-running British detective series, featuring married detectives. Like most readers, I'd love for her to write faster, but I can absolutely see why this complex story with an extensive cast of characters must be meticulously crafted. The characters are fully fleshed out from lead detectives Gemma and Duncan, to their three children, to the colleagues who surround them. I will be eagerly awaiting the next installment to see how each of them evolves.

My only wish is that Deborah Crombie wrote faster and more frequently. Her Gemma Jones and Duncan Kincaid mysteries are among my very favorites. This American author writes a terrific British set series. I have been reading them ever since the first title, A Share in Death, was published in 1993. Over time, the characters and their relationships change and develop, keeping readers riveted. For full enjoyment, the books could be read in order but that is not strictly necessary; enough backstory is provided to keep a new reader from being lost.

In this, the 19th, entry, a young doctor has been murdered and hers is but the first, not the only, death. Sasha had friends and family. She also had a complicated work relationship with one of the nurses at her hospital. The case is brought to both Duncan and Gemma along with their teams. It goes to Duncan because of the murder and Gemma because of there being knife crimes.

Readers get to know Sasha’s family which includes a brother with some tricky history. They also get to know her artist roommate; she too has a brother who may well be suspicious. Sasha was supposed to have been meeting him on the night that she was murdered.

Regular readers of the series will be delighted to catch up with Duncan and Gemma’s children. They will also be interested in finding out how Doug (Kincaid’s team) and Melody (Gemma’s) are doing after the events of the previous books.

The book and series are just a delight. Mark your calendar for this title’s release date!

Many thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for this title. All opinions are my own.

This is the 19th in the crime series featuring London detectives and spouses Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James.

Kincaid is now working out of the Holborn Police Station with Detective Sergeant Doug Cullen, his former partner at Scotland Yard. Gemma has a new job tracking and identifying knife crime in Greater London, a job that has turned out to be one of, in Gemma’s words, “mind-numbingly dull days spent at a computer terminal at the new Met headquarters, poring over reports.” Gemma missed boots-on-the-ground investigating.

As it happens, Kincaid’s latest case is a knife crime. Sasha Johnson, a 28-year-old trainee doctor at a nearby hospital, was killed in the park on her way home, in a stabbing that was clearly purposeful and targeted, rather than random. There are a number of possible suspects, although the foremost of them is eliminated after he is killed also.

Once again Duncan and Gemma juggle the responsibilities of their jobs with raising two young children (each had a son from a previous relationship) along with a third child they are fostering. Duncan figures out ways to get Gemma involved so she can have a break from her routine. He sends Gemma with his new detective inspector, Jasmine Sidana, undercover to a bar, which actually ends up helping Kincaid’s relationship with Sidana, but also highlights for Gemma the shortcomings of her current desk job.

There are a number of seemingly unrelated threads and red herrings, which keeps us turning the pages, and a surprising ending.

Evaluation: One of my favorite things about the Duncan Kincaid detective series is the juxtaposition of warped evil people and the crimes they commit, with Duncan’s diverse, messy, warm, loving network of family and friends. So many detectives have personal lives that are dark in some way, featuring struggles with painful pasts, relationships gone bad, and/or addiction. Detective Superintendent Kincaid and his wife Detective Inspector Gemma James are not without worries, but they are more of the sort shared by everyone - the security of your job, the safety of your kids, or whether or not the kids should be allowed to keep stray kittens.

This newest book is quite engaging and can be read as a standalone.

Yay, another hit installation in this great London policing series! 4.5 stars. I do wish the city map that normally accompanies these books had been available but I understand why it wasn't. Other than some confusion at the beginning about who went with whom (because it's been a while between novels) this newest book was excellent, as usual. Very professional, very well researched, and very believable. Kudos for another great read!

Absolutely love Deborah Crombie’s series. Each title stands on its own, but if read in order, you get much more involved with each of the characters and their lives. As always, the crimes are complex, lots of characters and themes contributing to the final “whodunnit” and the all important, why they did it. And always love the maps, love the feeling of place in the real world in all of these titles. I’ve often stopped reading to look at Google maps street view for locations in the book. In this title, the crime scene area, Russell Square/Bloomsbury area, was already very familiar to me.

Another good thing book in this series. I’ve heard all of them. I like how the characters developed and interacted. I highly recommend this series. Best to read in order b

Oh how I have missed Gemma and Duncan...and Kit and Toby and Charlotte.

Since it's been a bit since the last book, Ms. Crombie does an excellent job of bringing us back up to speed without being repetative.

Duncan and Doug are having a drink after work. Duncan notices an attractive young doctor as she is on her way out. Later when he is called to a crime scene, this doctor is the victim. As in all Ms. Crombie's books, each character has something going on. Gemma and Melody are working desk jobs tracking knife attacks. Both miss doing active investigations. Doug creates a strong bond with the roommate of the victim. Charlotte is having nightmares, Kit is still cooking up a storm and Toby is developing into quite the dancer. The continuity of these characters are what makes this such a strong series, that to me, the crime is secondary.

We journey into the victims job, her co-workers and her family. When another victim is found and he has a connection to the first victim, the focus narrows. In the flashback scenes which Ms. Crombie uses to great effectiveness in every book, the denouement makes sense

Thanks to NetGalley & Wm. Morrow for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I'm a longtime reader of Deborah Crombie's Kincaid & James novels, but, you know, some are better than others. As I age, I find that many of my favorite series are starting to falter and the stories are stale or annoying. This series is not one of those.

Duncan and Gemma have continuously evolved, with changes occurring in their lives that are normal, if not expected - there are no grand tragedies occurring that throw everything into question for several books (looking at you, Elizabeth George), but things do get shaken up every now and then. In the last few books, Duncan and Gemma found themselves embroiled in a case in which parents of a young child both were killed, leaving the girl, Charlotte, orphaned. They opted to become Charlotte's foster parents and that situation continues. Of course, adding a child to the relative chaos of their world has made their life a little crazier, and that is a current that runs through the story and introduces a small B plot that I expect will be addressed in the next book.

This book finds D&G (even though it's not Gemma's case but OF COURSE she gets involved, whatever) as well as Doug and Melody (again, NOT her case, and she takes a little heat for it) and the balance of Duncan's team involved in a murder where a junior doctor is killed in the midst of a bustling rush hour crowd while she cuts through a square to meet her roommate. She's just left a pub where Duncan and Doug were meeting for a drink, and Duncan had noticed her there, apparently waiting for a mate who never shows. The victim's brother seems to be involved in some shady stuff, and that provides plenty of red herring material until another victim falls, an employee of the same hospital. Are the two cases related?

Crombie keeps things moving, and the book is a fast read. There are many threads in the case, but I remained interested in all of them, even when it was clear they were not pursuant to the case. The only B plots that were kind of lame and irritating are the ones surrounding Melody and her ex, the musician. I can *barely* remember the previous plot points from their breakup in the last novel, and I never have been invested in that story, so I was not thrilled to see it rear up again (seriously, does anyone like plots about boomerang relationships? Go to counseling or break up for good, FFS).

Crombie excels at putting together a diverse cast of characters that interact well together. Her vision might be a little happy-clappy (characters from all different backgrounds, and of all different colors, rarely, if ever, have any political or interpersonal strife aside from Gemma's parents, who don't like her home situation (I cannot remember why?). It's nice, don't get me wrong, but I don't imagine it's reflective of reality in England. Still, I appreciate that she makes the effort to show a wide swath of cultures in the UK.

Another solid effort from Deborah Crombie. I will probably read this series for as long as she writes it.

This long-running series of British police procedurals has been a favorite of mine since the beginning. With each book, the relationships, both personal and professional, become more entwined and the stories richer. In this 19th installment, Duncan’s latest case crosses over with Gemma’s research into local knife crimes.

Deborah Crombie excels at vivid descriptions of the places and people she’s writing about. There’s the usual blended household of controlled chaos with Gemma and Duncan’s three kids and assorted pets. Plus you get caught up with team members and friends as they intersect with Gemma and Duncan’s lives.

I love the intricately plotted puzzle that braids together multiple mysteries and suspects. The story moves at a quick pace but never sacrifices logic to move the plot along.

If you love smart, satisfying police procedurals that give you a glimpse at the people behind the investigation, definitely try A Killing of Innocents.

When a young doctor is stabbed in a London square, Detective Superintendent Duncan Kincaid struggles to find a motive for the crime. As Kincaid, along with his detective wife, Gemma James, begins to investigate the unlikely victim's life and relationships, another stabbing sends the city into a panic.

The books in Crombie's Duncan Kincaid & Gemma James series are always a pleasure to read, and this newest addition is no different. Crombie makes the streets and neighborhoods of London come alive, detailing the detectives' work while integrating enough of their home and personal lives to make them feel human without overwhelming the main plot. Recommended for readers who enjoy a mystery, fans of Louise Penny and Ann Cleeves, and those who don't usually read mysteries but are looking to dabble in the genre.

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A KILLING OF INNOCENTS BY DEBORAH CROMBIE

It has been several years since fans have been able to catch up with Duncan Kincaid, Gemma James, their police teams, and their family. A Killing of Innocents, the nineteenth in the series, doesn’t disappoint.

Detective Sergeant Duncan Kincaid noticed the young woman while he was sitting in a pub waiting for Detective Sergeant Doug Cullen. He wonders afterward if he could have prevented her murder. Just twenty minutes after she left, Sasha Johnson was stabbed to death in London’s historic Russell Square, and Kincaid and Cullen are called to the scene. The only witness is a five-year-old boy, although he’s a better witness than most. He saw a large hooded figure, and even knew what direction he went.

Duncan calls his wife, Gemma James, because her team is working on knife crimes. But, Kincaid’s victim doesn’t seem to fit the pattern. She’s a doctor, a trainee at a nearby hospital. She’s not involved with a gang or using drugs. But, as Kincaid’s team digs in, they discover Sasha has secrets, and she isn’t the only one on the staff at the hospital who came there under a cloud. The media sends chills through London when they cover a second stabbing, but Kincaid suspects there are personal connnections.

Without revealing too much, I can talk about Crombie’s strengths. She excels at combining the police procedural investigation with the personal lives of her characters. Their family lives are integral to the stories, affecting the work lives of Duncan and Gemma. But, Crombie is skilled at handling that combination with the other members of their teams as well, personal and professional lives. And, she brings the same skill to development of the minor characters, victims, friends and relatives of the victims. Even witnesses are developed in Crombie’s books.

A Killing of Innocents is the nineteenth in the series. I sometimes think, when an author has been writing for so long, we tend to take their books for granted, and forget about the skill and creativity that goes into each book. Deborah Crombie’s Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James books are as entertaining and well-developed, with the same depth, as books by some of my other favorite authors, Louise Penny and J.D. Robb. It wouldn’t surprise me a bit to discover that readers appreciate the same qualities in all these books – atmospheric stories, well-developed plots, and beloved characters.

If you enjoy witty, intricate British mysteries, Crombie‘s Kincaid and James series is one of the best around, and this is one of the best in the series. Crombie accurately portrays the give-and-take families experience with trying to juggle home and work responsibilities. At first, I was afraid she was shelving Gemma, putting her behind a desk so she could be the primary caregiver for the children, but Gemma manages to hang on to her independence and power, and the ending promises a new day for the family.

Crombie has not shuffled the mystery to second seed either. There’s a complex plot that keeps the reader turning pages. I can usually spot the guilty party at least halfway through most mysteries but I was totally wrong on this one! It‘s a captivating continuation of the series, but if you haven‘t read the earlier ones, you can still follow the plot here. But then go read the earlier books in the series. You‘ll enjoy them!