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A review by asteroidbuckle
Kissed a Sad Goodbye by Deborah Crombie
4.0
This was a great book. Crombie does an excellent job of weaving the various threads of her story into a comprehensive whole, all the while making her characters intriguing and sympathetic. All except Detective Sergeant Gemma James, in my opinion.
Granted, this is the sixth book in Crombie's Kincaid/James series and only the second one I've read, so perhaps I'm missing Gemma's background. But I love Kincaid and the subplot involving his young son (who he didn't know he fathered) is sweet and slightly heartbreaking. But Gemma, like Diane Fry in Stephen Booth's series, I find to be utterly boring and unlikeable. I also dislike the romance between the two detectives. To me, it seems forced and totally lacking in chemistry. (There's one scene where Kincaid gets the urge to jump Gemma's bones in the victim's apartment! Ick!)
However, it's not the detectives that drive this story, but the other characters. The victim is a beautiful woman who has been hiding secrets from everyone. And the way Crombie interweaves reflections from the past (WWII) is great, but the significance of the scenes isn't realized until the end.
Crombie's writing is very descriptive and doesn't lag at all. I could do without the angst between the two leads, but hey, you can't have everything, right?
All in all, a great book. I'll definitely be reading the next book in the series.
Granted, this is the sixth book in Crombie's Kincaid/James series and only the second one I've read, so perhaps I'm missing Gemma's background. But I love Kincaid and the subplot involving his young son (who he didn't know he fathered) is sweet and slightly heartbreaking. But Gemma, like Diane Fry in Stephen Booth's series, I find to be utterly boring and unlikeable. I also dislike the romance between the two detectives. To me, it seems forced and totally lacking in chemistry. (There's one scene where Kincaid gets the urge to jump Gemma's bones in the victim's apartment! Ick!)
However, it's not the detectives that drive this story, but the other characters. The victim is a beautiful woman who has been hiding secrets from everyone. And the way Crombie interweaves reflections from the past (WWII) is great, but the significance of the scenes isn't realized until the end.
Crombie's writing is very descriptive and doesn't lag at all. I could do without the angst between the two leads, but hey, you can't have everything, right?
All in all, a great book. I'll definitely be reading the next book in the series.