It’s the familial touches that make Deborah Crombie’s WATER LIKE A STONE — the subtle interactions between people who know each other well, sometimes too well, and how they deal with pain, joy, and transition. These are exemplified when Detective Superintendent Duncan Kincaid and his partner Sgt. Gemma James take a visit to Kincaid’s family in the country for a Christmas visit.
Things aren’t necessarily going so well for their adolescent teenager Kit, and when he meets a sultry siren named Lally who happens to be his cousin, well, things tend to go all pear-shaped. And it doesn’t help when a baby girl is found walled up in a dairy barn.
She’s unearthed by the excavations conducted by Kincaid’s sister Juliet, who has troubles of her own with a domineering and hateful husband, who is convinced that she is cheating on him. Well, Merry Christmas, then!
Crombie handles all of this potentially melodramatic material crisply and cleanly. Parents act like parents, kids act like kids, and familial bonds and rules matter. That’s extremely refreshing in both a fictional and real-world way when the “adults” often act like overgrown 10-year-olds on a narcissism spree.
But don’t get me wrong — this book isn’t just about family. While it does have those aspects, the mystery is a good one, with a sinister antagonist; a remarkable landscape ably mapped out by Laura Maestro’s drawing of the area reproduced (smallishly) in the paperback; and an intriguing peek at the life of the boaters, the folks who run the narrow boats on England’s canal system.
This is an excellent read, a competent addition to the series, and well worth your time. –Mark Rose
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