When Duncan’s next door neighbor passes away in her sleep, something about the situation seems off to him, and he can’t help but look into things. The matter quickly gets more complicated when a it’s revealed that Jasmine was planning to commit suicide due to her terminal illness but changed her mind. Duncan’s gut instinct is that there is something more to her death than meets the eye, but nothing seems to add up. And as he digs deeper into Jasmine’s life, he beginning to wonder if anyone really knew her.
The second installment of this series gives a lot more insight into the main character. Duncan feels much more like a person and less like generic British detective which was what my impression of him was in the first book. The whole book was really driven by Duncan’s reaction to his neighbor’s death, and we spend a lot of time in his head. I also loved the fact that we got to see how he and his sergeant, Gemma, worked together as a team which was something that felt like it was missing from the first book. Gemma is probably my favorite character so far. I may be reading too much into things, but there also seems to be a hint of something between Gemma and Duncan, and I’m curious to see what happens there. So far, the series really reminds of Masterpiece Mystery series like Lewis or The Inspector Lynley Mysteries. It’s a lot like those in book form and makes for a satisfying mystery read. Three out of five stars.
CBR15 Bingo: Dwelling – A lot of the story is set in Kincaid and Jasmine’s homes.