A Finer End

When Kincaid, a Scotland Yard Detective Superintendant, is called by his cousin, Jack Montifort, to help discover who ran down Anglican priest Winifred Catesby and nearly killed her. Kincaid reluctantly agrees to talk to a few people and asks his former partner, the newly promoted Inspector James, to accompany him to Glastonbury. Once there, Montifort tells them that he has been in contact with an 800-year-old priest who wants him to do something, but hes not yet sure what. When another woman is killed, Kincaid moves into high gear.

Crombie has once again written a beautifully rendered mystery. The plot is intricate, but not so intricate as to be incomprehensible. She is able to move the story along at a sprightly pace despite several characters, including the long-dead priest. This is a fascinating read both from a historical perspective, Crombie is adept at giving you history without making it the focal point, and from a mystery perspective, why would anyone want to run down an Anglican priest and kill a ceramicist?

This book has it all - character development (once again Kincaid and James relationship is changing), plot, mystery, procedural, and good old-fashioned great writing. Do not pass this series and this entry into the series

Writing a good mystery is an art in itself. Ive reviewed a lot of them and it takes a really good writer to make me care about the characters as people and to feel involved in their lives and their tribulations. Usually I read them in a detached way, assessing the characterization, setting, dialogue and so on. This story grabbed me from the beginning and I cared about Jack, Winnie, Fiona and the others and what happened to them. I found the setting completely engrossing - Glastonbury has depth and dimensions of history that the writer has portrayed accurately. This tale requires a great amount of suspension of disbelief, but it worked and worked well for me.

I am always impressed that an American woman can express English life, especially one eccentric corner of it, so precisely. Its not jut acute observation, its an understanding of the feelings under the surface.

This is a really good English mystery novel, with an unexpected bonus of present evils woven into ancient wrongs. The writers understanding of the thinness of the veil between the Old religion and the New, as well as the possibility, in certain circumstances, of the collapsing of time to reach others across the centuries is well balanced. This could have been mawkish and New Age precious but it isnt. The writer nails perfectly these spiritual and temporal ambiguities.

This is a fine book in a good series.