This is the second book in the D.C. Smith series, and I liked it very much. Smith is investigating a suspicious death at a senior care home and mulling over his personal plans for the future. I like the humor, the personalities of the team members, and the personal details of the characters. ( )

The second DC Smith, King's Lake mystery. An elderly woman dies of a heroin overdose in a care home. It appears as a suicide, but who provided the heroin in this closely supervised community?

The second DC Smith mystery. ( )

Although it is book 2 in this series, it was my first encounter with DC Smith. Very good storyline. I am still holding judgment on the main character. I have recently begun the first book in this series so it seems I am willing to gamble that DC Smith will become someone I want to continue reading about. ( )

Such odd people

This one really didn't work for me. I don't understand why everybody was willing to play his games with him. Nor did I understand why nobody wanted a lawyer. And finally, the detective managed to irritate me more than once. I left it with the feeling that the author had made choices that made the detecting easier rather than making the people realistic. ( )

Atmospheric and thoughtful look at death amongst the old that falls a little short on tension.

"But For The Grace" wasn't what I expected as a follow-on from "An Accidental Death".
It shares some of its predecessor's strengths: police officers that I can believe in as real people and not just plot devices, the irritations of internal politics and the humour, bloodymindedness and practised disingenuity used to get around them and an empathy for the people whose lives are touched by the police investigation.

I think the writing became richer, evoking an atmosphere of melancholy resignation to the investigation of a death in a nursing home. The imagery of winter was used well. Even the name of the institution, Rosemary House, a herb closely associated with remembrance and honouring the dead, played its part.

Where it departed from its predecessor was in the decision to make solving the crime a secondary consideration. At the start, the novel feels like a police procedural investigation of a possible murder. As the story develops, that impetus is lost as DC Smith is made into an unwilling bystander to a demonstration of how the old and sick who are still sharp of mind and strong in spirit, deal with the inevitability of imminent death.

I rather liked Ralph Greenwood, the formidable old man at the centre of the story. DC Smith liked him as well. There were good points made on what it means to be old and what a mistake it is to see them as undifferentiated "old dears" rather than people who have lived long, full lives which are now coming to an end.


While I enjoyed the atmosphere of the book and the opportunity to meet the people in it, I wasn't convinced that the police procedural conceit was sustained.


I'll be reading the next book in the series but I hope that Peter Grainger manages to keep up the fine writing and build more tension into the plot next time. ( )