This took me quite  a while to get round to reading.  I checked it out of the library a couple times and never got around to it before having to return it, until this time.  I am glad that I did read it this time.  This was a Agatha Christie-like English country house murder mystery.  Our sleuth, Superintendent Duncan Kincaid, accepts a holiday time share to an estate in the Yorkshire countryside, wakes up to use the pool early and finds a body.  He is not accepting the local police’s assumption of suicide and so ends up having a “working vacation.”

Very well crafted mystery plot, with more than one murder, hints of blackmail, and infidelity scattered about.  Secrets abound among the group of vacationers with some having more to hide than others.  The stories are all cleverly woven together, there are no unnecessary story lines or characters.

Superintendent Kincaid has a sidekick in the form of his Sergeant Gemma James, a single working parent.  Gemma helps Kincaid with this case long distance, since he is away on vacation, however I am sure that as the series progresses her role will be more prominent.  After all, the series is  Duncan Kincaid & Gemma James, not just Kincaid.  Gemma seems like a good counterpoint sidekick for Kincaid and I look forward to seeing how the relationship between the two develops.

The series feels very much like Midsomer Murders, in fact Kincaid reminds me somewhat of Barnaby, so fans of that TV series should enjoy this!  This is an exceptional example of an English country house style murder and a highly recommended read.