The Sound of Broken Glass: A Novel Author: Deborah Crombie | Language: English | ISBN:
B0089LOOB8 | Format: EPUB
The Sound of Broken Glass: A Novel Description
Scotland Yard detectives Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James are on the case in Deborah Crombie’s The Sound of Broken Glass, a captivating mystery that blends a murder from the past with a powerful danger in the present.
When Detective Inspector James joins forces with Detective Inspector Melody Talbot to solve the murder of an esteemed barrister, their investigation leads them to realize that nothing is what it seems—with the crime they’re investigating and their own lives.
With an abundance of twists and turns and intertwining subplots, The Sound of Broken Glass by New York Times bestselling author Deborah Crombie is an elaborate and engaging page-turner.
- File Size: 1043 KB
- Print Length: 531 pages
- Page Numbers Source ISBN: B00ERS0OG6
- Publisher: William Morrow; Reprint edition (February 19, 2013)
- Sold by: HarperCollins Publishers
- Language: English
- ASIN: B0089LOOB8
- Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray:
- Lending: Not Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,822 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #21
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Mystery > British Detectives - #27
in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Mystery > British Detectives - #61
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Mystery > Police Procedurals
- #21
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Mystery > British Detectives - #27
in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Mystery > British Detectives - #61
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Mystery > Police Procedurals
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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