The Sound of Broken Glass: A James and Kincaid Novel, Book 15 Author: | Language: English | ISBN:
B00B29PRGK | Format: EPUB
The Sound of Broken Glass: A James and Kincaid Novel, Book 15 Description
In the past... On a blisteringly hot August afternoon in Crystal Palace, once home to the tragically destroyed Great Exhibition, a solitary 13-year-old boy meets his next-door neighbor, a recently widowed young teacher hoping to make a new start in the tight-knit South London community. Drawn together by loneliness, the unlikely pair forms a deep connection that ends in a shattering act of betrayal.
In the present...
On a cold January morning in London, Detective Inspector Gemma James is back on the job now that her husband, Detective Superintendent Duncan Kincaid, is at home to care for their three-year-old foster daughter. Assigned to lead a murder-investigation team in South London, she's assisted by her trusted colleague, newly promoted Detective Sergeant Melody Talbot. Their first case: a crime scene at a seedy hotel in Crystal Palace. The victim: a well-respected barrister, found naked, trussed, and apparently strangled. Is it an unsavory accident or murder? In either case, he was not alone, and Gemma's team must find his companion - a search that takes them into unexpected corners and forces them to contemplate unsettling truths about the weaknesses and passions that lead to murder. Ultimately, they will begin to question everything they think they know about their world and those they trust most.
- Audible Audio Edition
- Listening Length: 11 hours and 37 minutes
- Program Type: Audiobook
- Version: Unabridged
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Audible.com Release Date: February 19, 2013
- Whispersync for Voice: Ready
- Language: English
- ASIN: B00B29PRGK
First a bit of back story for those of you who aren't series regulars: This is the 15th novel in a series starring Scotland Yard detectives Duncan Kinkaid and Gemma James by the American novelist Deborah Crombie. The Duncan & Gemma story began when he became her superior on the force, then came attraction, then, a secret love affair, then, eventually, Duncan, Gemma and her little boy Toby moved in together, then Duncan's son Kit's mother died and he joined the household, dogs got added, then came a case they were working on that left a wee child named Charlotte orphaned and homeless; after she joined their household, the two detectives found themselves having to take alternate leaves to stay home and help her adapt to a new life. Around that same time, Duncan and Gemma got married and Gemma got transferred to the Yard's South London team where she's now about to take on her first case as a DCI (Detective Chief Inspector).
This one starts out as a case of a barrister found dead in a bed in a downmarket hotel--tied up, face-down and strangled. Another virtually identical murder occurs soon after. The victims had no known connections to each other, but each had had connections to the Crystal Palace neighborhood at one time or another. So, too, did the guitarist who'd been playing with his band at the pub where the first victim was last seen.
By coincidence, it turns out that Duncan, currently the stay-at-home dad, knows some of the key players in this case, and gets involved...secretly, because Scotland Yard does not allow married couples to work together. (I wonder how Crombie's going to deal with that as the series goes on--perhaps the answer's in whatever comes after that surprising last sentence on the last page.
If you've ever contemplated writing a thriller, or even just a run-of-the-mill crime novel, you may have stopped in your tracks when you came to the point of coming up with a plot. It ain't easy (at least for those of us who aren't named James Patterson). Readers tend to demand stories that keep them puzzled right up to the end, surprise or shock them in the closing pages, and then leave them with a satisfied feeling that everything makes sense after all. All this requires that lots of loose ends need to be tied up tightly, shining a favorable light on the intrepid investigator who solves the case or the heroic action figure who forestalls disaster (usually something tantamount to destroying the planet we live on).
Sometimes coincidence plays a part in making all this work. And sometimes it plays much too big a part.
In her police procedurals set in England, Deborah Crombie has generally done an unusually good job of writing convincing and engaging mystery novels -- despite the fact that she's a native Texan and lives in a Texas town. On most of my previous excursions into the lives of Crombie's protagonists, Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James, I've enjoyed myself immensely. However, The Sound of Broken Glass is a disappointment.
This time, the culprit is coincidence.
In Broken Glass, Kincaid and James are married and raising three children (one of hers, one of his, and one adopted), and in ways that are clearly less than satisfying or convenient for them, their lives now revolve around the kids. Kincaid, a Detective Superintendant, is playing house-husband while James, promoted to Detective Inspector, chases murderers through the streets of London.
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