And Justice There Is None

I wonder why an American author would want to write a police procedural "who dun it" set in London with the principal characters being officers in the Metropolitan Police? Whatever the reason, I have now come across my second example. Elizabeth George was the first, with her very popular Inspector Lynley series, which was an equally popular adaptation for television, although the success of the series may have owed something to Nathaniel Parker and Sharon Stone who were so brilliantly cast as Lynley and his sidekick, Sergeant Havers. The second such author who has recently come to my attention is Deborah Crombie. I have just read "And Justice There Is None", which I find is the eighth novel in the Gemma James and Duncan Kincaid series. It might have been better had I started with the first.

The author's mini-biog states that Crombie lives in Texas and at first I was unsure whether the author is an American whose novel is set in London or an English woman who has emigrated to the US. I quickly realised she is American when I came across a mention of paper money. She used the word "bills" whereas an English writer would have said "notes". Other clues cropped up from time to time indicating that her research was considerably less thorough than is Elizabeth George's. For example, Crombie refers to London police cars as being orange and black. They never have been. Then she confuses Hertfordshire and Herefordshire, although this might have been simply a typographic error.

These quibbles apart, I found the book an enjoyable read and not a bad example of its genre, although she does seem to be following something of a fashion fad in having two senior police officers as live-in partners, an idea I have seen used by a number of other authors recently. Crombie produces believable characters, ranging from the "normal" to the eccentric, and her settings are described well enough to picture them easily. The plot is developed steadily, although there is one factor which doesn't seem to connect very well. There appear at first to be two separate stories interwoven; fortunately, the use of two different typefaces makes it easy to separate them. But of course, they turn out to be two parts of the same story. We also see the main sub-plot - the relationship between Gemma James and Duncan Kincaid - develop to a point that provides a good position from which to continue in another book.

As I said, I enjoyed the book and will be happy to pick up others by Ms Crombie when I am at the library. "And Justice There Is None" is not up to Elizabeth George's standard, but definitely worth four stars.