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Chief Superintendent Gently #8
Gently to the Summit
A long-dead climber who comes in from the cold brings murder to the mountain air.
Mountaineer Reginald Kincaid was believed to have died during an expedition to climb Mount Everest. It comes as a shock to his fellow climbers when he turns up again 22 years later and the mystery is compounded by the death of Arthur Fleece, Kincaid's climbing partner on the Everest attempt. Fleece falls to his death on Mount Snowdon in an apparent accident, but the feud that had developed between Fleece and the resurrected Kincaid sparks a murder investigation for George Gently with a 'dead' man as the prime suspect.
Mountaineer Reginald Kincaid was believed to have died during an expedition to climb Mount Everest. It comes as a shock to his fellow climbers when he turns up again 22 years later and the mystery is compounded by the death of Arthur Fleece, Kincaid's climbing partner on the Everest attempt. Fleece falls to his death on Mount Snowdon in an apparent accident, but the feud that had developed between Fleece and the resurrected Kincaid sparks a murder investigation for George Gently with a 'dead' man as the prime suspect.
242 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1961
25 people are currently reading
115 people want to read
About the author
Alan Hunter
104 books63 followersAlan Hunter was born at Hoveton, Norfolk and went to school across the River Bure in Wroxham. He left school at 14 and worked on his father's farm near Norwich. He enjoyed dinghy sailing on the Norfolk Broads, wrote natural history notes for the local newspaper, and wrote poetry, some of which was published while he was in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War.
He married, in 1944, Adelaide Cooper, who survives him with their daughter. After the war he managed the antiquarian books department of Charles Cubitt in Norwich. Four years later, in 1950, he established his own bookshop on Maddermarket in the city.
From 1955 until 1998 he published a Gently detective novel nearly every year. He retired to Brundall in Norfolk where he continued his interests in local history, natural history, and sailing
He married, in 1944, Adelaide Cooper, who survives him with their daughter. After the war he managed the antiquarian books department of Charles Cubitt in Norwich. Four years later, in 1950, he established his own bookshop on Maddermarket in the city.
From 1955 until 1998 he published a Gently detective novel nearly every year. He retired to Brundall in Norfolk where he continued his interests in local history, natural history, and sailing
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
May 12, 2023
Gently’s Return of*
Review of the Constable Kindle eBook edition (2011) of the Cassell hardcover original (1961).
I had some fun searching for illustrations related to Gently to the Summit and that reflects in my rating. The case itself involves the return after 22 years of an apparent 'lost presumed dead' climber from a Mount Everest expedition in the late 1930's. The returnee makes himself known to his club and is met with doubt. Then another member dies under suspicious circumstances at Mount Snowdon in Wales and the returnee is the main suspect. Snowdon is a regular site of training runs for Mount Everest, although you can also walk up to the summit by hiking trails or travel by railway.
Chief Inspector Gently is called in from Scotland Yard's CID Central Office and has to solve the question of both the new death and the original disappearance and reappearance. He ends up reconstructing the crime by arranging for all of the suspects to walk up Mount Snowdon yet again.
A photograph of the original Snowdon Café at the summit of Mount Snowdon in Wales in the 1930s, which is the site of various murderous happenings in ‘Gently to the Summit’. The original café was once described by Prince Charles (now King Charles III) as the ‘highest slum in Wales’. The original building was demolished in 2006 to make way for a modern visitor’s centre and restaurant. Image sourced from the Summit Post.
A view of the modern Mount Snowdon visitor's centre which opened in 2009. Image sourced from an article High Tea, Mount Snowdon's Magical Mountaintop Cafe in The Guardian, August 2, 2009.
The dust cover of the original hardcover published by Cassell in 1961. Image sourced from Goodreads.
Footnote
* I was going to title this 'Gently's Return of Martin Guerre', but then wondered how well the classic 16th century historical case of imposture is known. You can read about it at Wikipedia. Note: The historical case is not a spoiler for the Hunter book as the fates are completely different.
Trivia and Links
The George Gently books were adapted as the TV series Inspector George Gently (2008-2017) with actor Martin Shaw in the title role. Very few of the TV episodes are based on the original books though and the characters are quite different. The timeline for the TV series takes place in the 1960s only. A trailer for the first episode can be seen here.
Review of the Constable Kindle eBook edition (2011) of the Cassell hardcover original (1961).
I had some fun searching for illustrations related to Gently to the Summit and that reflects in my rating. The case itself involves the return after 22 years of an apparent 'lost presumed dead' climber from a Mount Everest expedition in the late 1930's. The returnee makes himself known to his club and is met with doubt. Then another member dies under suspicious circumstances at Mount Snowdon in Wales and the returnee is the main suspect. Snowdon is a regular site of training runs for Mount Everest, although you can also walk up to the summit by hiking trails or travel by railway.
Chief Inspector Gently is called in from Scotland Yard's CID Central Office and has to solve the question of both the new death and the original disappearance and reappearance. He ends up reconstructing the crime by arranging for all of the suspects to walk up Mount Snowdon yet again.
A photograph of the original Snowdon Café at the summit of Mount Snowdon in Wales in the 1930s, which is the site of various murderous happenings in ‘Gently to the Summit’. The original café was once described by Prince Charles (now King Charles III) as the ‘highest slum in Wales’. The original building was demolished in 2006 to make way for a modern visitor’s centre and restaurant. Image sourced from the Summit Post.
A view of the modern Mount Snowdon visitor's centre which opened in 2009. Image sourced from an article High Tea, Mount Snowdon's Magical Mountaintop Cafe in The Guardian, August 2, 2009.
The dust cover of the original hardcover published by Cassell in 1961. Image sourced from Goodreads.
Footnote
* I was going to title this 'Gently's Return of Martin Guerre', but then wondered how well the classic 16th century historical case of imposture is known. You can read about it at Wikipedia. Note: The historical case is not a spoiler for the Hunter book as the fates are completely different.
Trivia and Links
The George Gently books were adapted as the TV series Inspector George Gently (2008-2017) with actor Martin Shaw in the title role. Very few of the TV episodes are based on the original books though and the characters are quite different. The timeline for the TV series takes place in the 1960s only. A trailer for the first episode can be seen here.
May 11, 2013
This is the ninth in the series about the genial but sharp-eyed detective, George Gently, and just in case anyone out there is paying attention, yes, I did miss out number eight. OK, so I got confused, alright? There are forty-something in the series, so this is a problem that's only likely to get worse. One thing that's interesting about reading the whole sequence in order (well, more or less) is the subtle but noticeable change in approach. In the early books, Gently sucked peppermint creams constantly, ate vast meals (described in some detail) and merely ambled through the landscape, populated with a variety of dialect-speaking hicks, as clues and suspects fell at his feet. Book by book, however, the eccentricities have fallen away and what remains is much more of a conventional police procedural, albeit still fossilised in post-war Britain.
A large part of the enjoyment of these stories is the period setting, and although there are fewer details than previously, this is still a world of diggings and cheery landladies, three course lunches and a well-delineated class system. I find it curious that anyone with pretensions to grandeur feels quite at liberty to be obstructive and downright rude to the police. There is still the uneasy air of rebuilding after the war, not simply of bombed out houses, but of people too. The loss of many records in council offices, churches and the like means that anyone who wants to can simply vanish and reinvent themselves, with no one able to check their history, and this makes an interesting plot point here.
This is perhaps the best of the series so far. The premise is that an unsuccessful pre-war attempt to climb Mount Everest, which resulted in the death of one climber, comes back to haunt the participants when the supposedly dead man turns up again, plaintively searching for his wife. There's an immediate outbreak of disbelief, a very public spat with another expedition member, followed by lawsuits, whereupon the other climber falls to his death (a slightly less dramatic death, on Snowdon). Gently potters about London and Wales, in his relaxed way, uncovering the details, and if the suspects line up rather too easily and the big reveal is blindingly obvious, the tale is none the worse for that. A mildly entertaining, if not particularly challenging, little mystery. Three stars.
A large part of the enjoyment of these stories is the period setting, and although there are fewer details than previously, this is still a world of diggings and cheery landladies, three course lunches and a well-delineated class system. I find it curious that anyone with pretensions to grandeur feels quite at liberty to be obstructive and downright rude to the police. There is still the uneasy air of rebuilding after the war, not simply of bombed out houses, but of people too. The loss of many records in council offices, churches and the like means that anyone who wants to can simply vanish and reinvent themselves, with no one able to check their history, and this makes an interesting plot point here.
This is perhaps the best of the series so far. The premise is that an unsuccessful pre-war attempt to climb Mount Everest, which resulted in the death of one climber, comes back to haunt the participants when the supposedly dead man turns up again, plaintively searching for his wife. There's an immediate outbreak of disbelief, a very public spat with another expedition member, followed by lawsuits, whereupon the other climber falls to his death (a slightly less dramatic death, on Snowdon). Gently potters about London and Wales, in his relaxed way, uncovering the details, and if the suspects line up rather too easily and the big reveal is blindingly obvious, the tale is none the worse for that. A mildly entertaining, if not particularly challenging, little mystery. Three stars.
February 2, 2026
Loved the Gently tv series, so when I saw this perfectly penguin-sized book in a Thai second hand bookshop I snapped it up.
Hunter writes well, the plot is sound, the characters a little 2D perhaps, but as you would expect for a crime -centric novel of the time.
I’d actually have given it 5 stars, but the denouement went on a bit too long for me.
Despite this, I’ve ordered another half a dozen from the series second hand from eBay (couldn’t find them new?!) and I’m looking forward to diving more deeply into the world of Gently.
Recommended as an easy, well-plotted read.
Hunter writes well, the plot is sound, the characters a little 2D perhaps, but as you would expect for a crime -centric novel of the time.
I’d actually have given it 5 stars, but the denouement went on a bit too long for me.
Despite this, I’ve ordered another half a dozen from the series second hand from eBay (couldn’t find them new?!) and I’m looking forward to diving more deeply into the world of Gently.
Recommended as an easy, well-plotted read.
February 8, 2018
The previous Gently books have seen him travel out from the Met police to a thinly-disguised East Anglia - this one is mainly set in and around London for a change. The story concentrates on the aftermath of an Everest expedition more than twenty years earlier and provide plenty of challenge for Gently to think about. Written in 1960, it is very dated now, but I still enjoyed the read.
April 24, 2025
It was only when I was part of the way through this excellent police procedural from 1961 that I realised that Detective Superintendent George Gently was the chap played by Martin Shaw in SEVEN series ofTV dramas which I’d never watched. Apparently the TV shows are not based on the plots in the books to any extent.
This is an intriguing story of a mountaineer, Kinkaid, returning shockingly to Britain twenty years on from his apparent death on Everest. As likely an event as George Mallory re-materialising, only alive this time.
This causes a great deal of consternation in the climbing fraternity as many believe him to be an imposter; his wife, for whom he is desperately seeking, seems to have disappeared possibly a victim of the Blitz and to cap it all he may have pushed the man who had deserted him on Everest to his death from the top of Snowden. So he’s charged with murder by Chief Inspector Evans of the North Wales Police. Evans, who is in awe of Gently, is a slightly generic Welshman, all “Look you” and ending every other sentence with “man”, a habit copied by Gentle. Any book with a character called Evans (with the obvious exception of Ten Rillington Place) is fine by me.
The unpicking of the mystery is very clever and a climactic mountaineering section is quite terrifyingly realistic - the author had clearly recced the route himself. I especially enjoyed the author’s unwillingness to dumb down the Welsh names for the dramatic scenery of Yr Wyddfa and his description makes me want to climb the mountain for a third time.
This is an intriguing story of a mountaineer, Kinkaid, returning shockingly to Britain twenty years on from his apparent death on Everest. As likely an event as George Mallory re-materialising, only alive this time.
This causes a great deal of consternation in the climbing fraternity as many believe him to be an imposter; his wife, for whom he is desperately seeking, seems to have disappeared possibly a victim of the Blitz and to cap it all he may have pushed the man who had deserted him on Everest to his death from the top of Snowden. So he’s charged with murder by Chief Inspector Evans of the North Wales Police. Evans, who is in awe of Gently, is a slightly generic Welshman, all “Look you” and ending every other sentence with “man”, a habit copied by Gentle. Any book with a character called Evans (with the obvious exception of Ten Rillington Place) is fine by me.
The unpicking of the mystery is very clever and a climactic mountaineering section is quite terrifyingly realistic - the author had clearly recced the route himself. I especially enjoyed the author’s unwillingness to dumb down the Welsh names for the dramatic scenery of Yr Wyddfa and his description makes me want to climb the mountain for a third time.
August 11, 2012
George Gently an unlikely mountaineer! He finds himself investigating a rather odd situation in that a supposed long-dead climber from 1937 suddenly turns up 22 years later.
There was mystery surrounding the mountaineer's disappearance on Everest and when he arrives back in England after so long a time, there is suspicion that all is not as it seems, or even that the person is not who he claims to be.
A feud from years ago comes to light; a climb up Snowdon results in a death. Was the returning mountaineeer responsible or is there some other motive?
There are a number of personalities involved and Gently has to interview them all to find out what connection they have to the mystery. Despite plenty of false trails, Gently, after a harrowing climb, and fall, on Snowdon, eventually sorts out the mystery.
There was mystery surrounding the mountaineer's disappearance on Everest and when he arrives back in England after so long a time, there is suspicion that all is not as it seems, or even that the person is not who he claims to be.
A feud from years ago comes to light; a climb up Snowdon results in a death. Was the returning mountaineeer responsible or is there some other motive?
There are a number of personalities involved and Gently has to interview them all to find out what connection they have to the mystery. Despite plenty of false trails, Gently, after a harrowing climb, and fall, on Snowdon, eventually sorts out the mystery.
July 29, 2013
I read this book because I love the BBC series based off of these books. Overall, I thought it was good and the mystery was really twisted and the outcome was not at all what I expected it to be. It was well written. The only reason I am only giving it a 3/5 is because I found it to be a little slow, but that's probably just because I prefer young adult to adult books.
January 19, 2021
This is an Inspector George Gently novel from 1961, which stands up well despite a few characters acting rather melodramatically. A 1937 expedition to Everest saw Reginald Kincaid disappear near the summit and he sensationally returns 22 years later (or is it him?) but his fellow climber then falls to his death on Snowden and Kincaid is arrested. Gently and a rather histrionic Welsh cop follow clues to the identity of Kincaid’s former wife and uncover a tangled web mainly of those on the expedition. It's an easy read
January 2, 2019
These are a little dated at the best of times, but this mountaineering plot just dragged. I found it hard to keep track with the various relationships (especially the women), and the descriptions of the scenery and routes walked up Snowdon just dragged. It all made sense at the end when Gently summarises it, but overall a weaker book for me.
December 7, 2018
42 WORD REVIEW:
Gently is an outlier in detective fiction, focussing less on clues and procedure and more on the resonance of each mystery. Hunter gives him a brooding melancholy and an almost mystical approach to interviewing persons of interest. Wincott’s reading captures the spirit.
Gently is an outlier in detective fiction, focussing less on clues and procedure and more on the resonance of each mystery. Hunter gives him a brooding melancholy and an almost mystical approach to interviewing persons of interest. Wincott’s reading captures the spirit.
December 6, 2017
I like a Gently tale. I worked out fairly swiftly whodunnit hence a 3.
January 22, 2025
After watching the George gently series on TV thought I would give the book a go, to be honest thought it was a bit slow going and probably will stick to watching it on the TV.
February 26, 2017
Quirky story about the reappearance of a mountaineer who disappeared during an Everest expedition. Gently has to determine whether the man is who he claims to be, and whether he is involved in the suspicious death of a fellow mountaineer.
I generally enjoy the Gently series, they are gentle undemanding stories with a quiet and likeable protagonist. This one was for me superior to the others I've read. There are two plot lines that you know have to be connected, but I couldn't work out how in advance of the reveal. The secondary characters were engaging, and the descriptions of the mountains and the physical demands of climbing were excellent.
Really enjoyable read.
I generally enjoy the Gently series, they are gentle undemanding stories with a quiet and likeable protagonist. This one was for me superior to the others I've read. There are two plot lines that you know have to be connected, but I couldn't work out how in advance of the reveal. The secondary characters were engaging, and the descriptions of the mountains and the physical demands of climbing were excellent.
Really enjoyable read.
July 13, 2018
Hm. This one was more of a whodunit, which I don't like as much. And it got too convoluted with red herrings, which is typically how I feel about whodunits.
This one did successfully misdirect me, though, and the story eventually revealed was more interesting than we'd started with. it's possible that a reread some time might be more satisfying.
--------------
Below is my rambling notes, but Goodreads' "private notes" field has a foolishly small size limit.
Thoughts early in the book:
Will this be the first one to not take place in Norfolk? At all? I *love* that the series is a portrait of Norfolk -- I just suspect that Hunter will vary it at some point.
It could be a really good thing, too, if done in a way that acknowledges that it's an excursion. If we just got a routine case set in London, or some other county, with no acknowledgement of departure, I think that would suck! :)
Having read a bit more now, this case seems quite non-routine; it will seem a fitting departure, if that's what we indeed get.
(Of course I don't know if the series will continue to be mostly about Norfolk. I'm suspecting it most often will be. And adjacent locations wouldn't break the mold too much. I don't know if the thought of Suffolk would make Hunter cry "What!?!" But to me, it could be a fairly natural expansion. )
... yeah, it looks like this is never going to Norfolk. maybe he'll go fishing at the end... but that could be in Wales, too.
another nice thing that Hunter is varying: through the first several books, the local cops are most often straw men, who scoff at everything Gently says.
it's a nice counter to that, that the Welsh inspector Evans, here, goes overboard *agreeing* with every thought that Gently voices. :) Even though plenty of them are not meant as solutions to the case, but rather to puncture other police theories, or the claims of the suspects & witnesses.
Evans may be a type, of the mercurial Celt. But there are plenty of types here, and he's very likeable.
This one did successfully misdirect me, though, and the story eventually revealed was more interesting than we'd started with. it's possible that a reread some time might be more satisfying.
--------------
Below is my rambling notes, but Goodreads' "private notes" field has a foolishly small size limit.
Thoughts early in the book:
Will this be the first one to not take place in Norfolk? At all? I *love* that the series is a portrait of Norfolk -- I just suspect that Hunter will vary it at some point.
It could be a really good thing, too, if done in a way that acknowledges that it's an excursion. If we just got a routine case set in London, or some other county, with no acknowledgement of departure, I think that would suck! :)
Having read a bit more now, this case seems quite non-routine; it will seem a fitting departure, if that's what we indeed get.
(Of course I don't know if the series will continue to be mostly about Norfolk. I'm suspecting it most often will be. And adjacent locations wouldn't break the mold too much. I don't know if the thought of Suffolk would make Hunter cry "What!?!" But to me, it could be a fairly natural expansion. )
... yeah, it looks like this is never going to Norfolk. maybe he'll go fishing at the end... but that could be in Wales, too.
another nice thing that Hunter is varying: through the first several books, the local cops are most often straw men, who scoff at everything Gently says.
it's a nice counter to that, that the Welsh inspector Evans, here, goes overboard *agreeing* with every thought that Gently voices. :) Even though plenty of them are not meant as solutions to the case, but rather to puncture other police theories, or the claims of the suspects & witnesses.
Evans may be a type, of the mercurial Celt. But there are plenty of types here, and he's very likeable.
July 20, 2016
I started reading this series because I like the TV series. As usual the books are better. The Character of Genly is much more developed and slightly different than on TV.
This book however is not quite as good as some of the previous in the series. It starts off on a good premise. A man (Kincaid) has been presumed dead for 20 years but turns up one day. Chaos ensues because the town is divided over the truth of his story. People who should know him best are at odds. Because he "died" on a climb on Mt Everest, the Everest club members, who accompanied him on the climb, are rattled. A few weeks later, someone dies. Kincaid is arrested. This is just the beginning. THIS part is interesting, All the emotions and natural logic, and discussion about the return of one presumed dead. I feel the investigation, and characters in this book, were not as well developed and the plot of the mystery not that gripping as some earlier in the series.
This book however is not quite as good as some of the previous in the series. It starts off on a good premise. A man (Kincaid) has been presumed dead for 20 years but turns up one day. Chaos ensues because the town is divided over the truth of his story. People who should know him best are at odds. Because he "died" on a climb on Mt Everest, the Everest club members, who accompanied him on the climb, are rattled. A few weeks later, someone dies. Kincaid is arrested. This is just the beginning. THIS part is interesting, All the emotions and natural logic, and discussion about the return of one presumed dead. I feel the investigation, and characters in this book, were not as well developed and the plot of the mystery not that gripping as some earlier in the series.
April 11, 2020
Gently is called on to investigate two crimes at once when a mountain climber returns from a mysterious absence and is implicated in a new murder of one of his former climbing mates.
This is standard detective procedural fare from Hunter. The plot sags a bit in the first half but picks up in the second with the comparison of additional suspects and stories. There's quite a bit of Welsh in this tale, which gives it a somewhat fresh perspective, and Hunter's descriptions of the climbs mimicking Everest are full of evocative detail.
Not my favorite Gently crime story, but the resolution and denouement offer a refreshing departure from previous entries.
This is standard detective procedural fare from Hunter. The plot sags a bit in the first half but picks up in the second with the comparison of additional suspects and stories. There's quite a bit of Welsh in this tale, which gives it a somewhat fresh perspective, and Hunter's descriptions of the climbs mimicking Everest are full of evocative detail.
Not my favorite Gently crime story, but the resolution and denouement offer a refreshing departure from previous entries.
December 23, 2014
I have never not finished a book, but I confess that this is the first and hopefully last time..
As much as I like the character and previous novels, I found this to be mundane and again slightly repetitive. It is a shame because I feel that they can offer so much more.
Alas for now I'm calling it quits. I hope to return to them again in the future. Please don't let this put any future readers off!
As much as I like the character and previous novels, I found this to be mundane and again slightly repetitive. It is a shame because I feel that they can offer so much more.
Alas for now I'm calling it quits. I hope to return to them again in the future. Please don't let this put any future readers off!
February 24, 2013
A mountaineering death takes George Gently to North Wales for a change - very different to East Anglia.
June 29, 2012
The strongest of these I've read so far. Still not in re-read territory, but I kept being drawn back to the story, wanting to see how it ended, even though I'd guessed at the answer to the mystery.
October 5, 2015
A gentle, Gently story with a new, young sidekick from Wales who is often frustrated and then awed by Gently's inscrutable methods of detection. Big twist at the end.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews