The New Kincaid/James--A BITTER FEAST

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I'm so excited to get to talk about the new Kincaid/James book today! This is #18 in the series, and it's called A BITTER FEAST. 

We don't quite have a finished cover, but it's coming soon and it is going to be stunning! In the meantime, here's a look at the very picturesque village of Lower Slaughter, in Gloucestershire, where most of the book takes place.

I had long wanted to set a book in the beautiful Cotswolds, one of my favorite parts of England. And after the London setting of the last two books, I thought it would be fun for all four of my series detectives, Scotland Yard Detective Superintendent Duncan Kincaid and Detective Inspector Gemma James (who are married, if you don't know) Detective Sergeant Doug Cullen, and Detective Sergeant Melody Talbot, to spend a weekend together in the country. They, and Duncan's and Gemma's three children, are invited to Melody Talbot's parents' home in the scenic Cotswold village of Lower Slaughter, where Melody's mother is hosting an autumn harvest charity luncheon catered by local chef Viv Holland. 

But of course from the very beginning, their relaxing weekend does not go as planned. 

Here's a snippet from the end of Chapter 1. Just to put you in the scene, Gemma and Melody have driven ahead with little Charlotte, and Doug is coming by train with the two boys the next morning, so Duncan is driving alone, and running late, as the September sun sets.

Kincaid’s predictions turned out to have been overly optimistic. The traffic had slowed again, and it was fully dark by the time he finally left the motorway. The car was too old to have built-in sat-nav, and not wanting to stop to check his mobile, he trusted to his memory of the map he’d looked at earlier. He decided not to ring Gemma as he didn’t know how long the remainder of the journey would take.

As he passed Cirencester, the land began to rise into the Cotswold Hills, as well as he could tell in the dark. Not far to go, then, but he had to laugh at the idea of the Talbots referring to their place as a “weekend” home. Perhaps they knew a way to circumvent the motorway traffic—or they simply took the train to the nearest station, where they had a retainer waiting to fetch them. Or maybe they just took a helicopter, he thought, grinning.

A signpost loomed in the headlamps. It was the turn off for Bourton-on-the-Water, the nearest small town to the Talbots’ village. Almost there, then. He was wondering if he should find a place to pull over and check the map on his mobile when headlamps blazed suddenly from his left, blinding him.

Before he could throw up a hand or hit the brake, there came a tearing impact, and all went dark. 

I hope you can't wait to find out what happens next. The book will be out in October 2019. You can pre-order the Kindle version here, and I'm sure the other e-book formats and hardcover pre-orders will go up soon, too.

This is a "busman's holiday" story--there are certainly suspicious deaths, but none of the series detectives are officially on the case. You can be sure that doesn't keep them from investigating, however!

Readers, do you have a favorite "busman's holiday" mystery? I've written several of them myself, but I think one of my faves would have to be Dorothy Sayer's "Busman's Honeymoon," with Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane.