All Shall Be Well, by Deborah Crombie, is a mystery novel featuring two members of Scotland Yard, Superintendent Duncan James (Superintendent appears not to be a terminal rank, unlike at a U.S. school or prison) and Sergeant Gemma James. I saw a later novel in this series reviewed as an audiobook, and thought it sounded interesting enough to check the first book out of the library.
This is actually the second book in the series; I don’t know where I got the idea it was the first. It appears to stand alone. This is a short, tight novel about the life and death of Jasmine Dent, a neighbor of Duncan’s who was terminally ill with cancer. It looks like suicide, but Duncan has his doubts, and as you might expect from the genre, he’s right.
The exploration of Jasmine’s life unfolds satisfyingly, and Duncan and James are perfectly agreeable. I think the mystery is probably fair, though I didn’t bother trying to figure it out since I expected the revelations of the past to hold the vital clue. This struck me as nicely understated and somehow respectful. It was a pleasant way to pass a subway ride and a lunch, and I might pick up more later, but I’m in no great hurry.