≫ Download Free The Sound of Broken Glass A Novel Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James Novels Deborah Crombie 9780061990632 Books

The Sound of Broken Glass A Novel Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James Novels Deborah Crombie 9780061990632 Books

Download As PDF : The Sound of Broken Glass A Novel Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James Novels Deborah Crombie 9780061990632 Books

The Sound of Broken Glass A Novel Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James Novels Deborah Crombie 9780061990632 Books

I like the complexity of these books, and the nuances of London--both modern and historical--explored by the author. What holds me back from the 5th star is the depth of characterization. These are whole characters, don't get me wrong, but there's something just out of reach in the main characters Duncan and Gemma, but mostly Duncan. Perhaps it's because the author, after 15 books, still narrates his scenes as "Kincaid" and that use of the last name has a subtle distancing effect. Overall, an excellent read with a focus this time on the indie music scene and the Crystal Palace.


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The Sound of Broken Glass A Novel Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James Novels Deborah Crombie 9780061990632 Books Reviews

Deborah Crombie's a new author to me and that's both good and bad. Good because now I can go read everything she's written - new worlds to explore! Bad because I've really been missing out. Although Ms. Crombie's a native Texan, she spent time living in the UK and she writes a great British police procedural. Her primary characters, DI Gemma James and DS Duncan Kincaid, are married and dealing with the challenges of a blended family and an adopted child with a traumatic past and the consequent special needs. There is no perfect solution to any of these situations and Ms. Crombie is great about not offering impossible solutions where there are none.

In a sense, the personal lives of our heroes mirror the complexities of the case presented in The Sound of Broken Glass - a trussed and strangled murder victim and all the questions that arise from the discovery of his corpse. There are lots of connections here between everyone involved, a reminder that England is not America. In America, we scoff at multiple connections because our geography is so large. It's an oddity when I meet a man who grew up in the same small town in Mississippi as my mother at a temporary job in Seattle, WA. If you telescope your vision to a smaller state, however, connections are so common as to be the norm. Given its size, it makes sense to me that people would be more obviously and immediately interconnected in England so all the strings and coincidences that attach each to each work and make sense to me.

As much a story about family and friends as it is a murder mystery, The Sound of Broken Glass is a real pleasure. A sharp, well-plotted, well-written procedural that will hold your attention right through the very end.
Every time Deborah Crombie publishes a new book in The Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James Novels I go back to A Share in Death and read all the ones that come before the new one. In this way, it all feels as one whole novel with each book a chapter. It makes a lot of sense and it makes me appreciate the whole even more.

It is now the 22nd of September 2014, at 1045pm, and I have finished reading the 15th novel, The Sound of Broken Glass, just in time. I can start reading the next book in this series, To Dwell In Darkness, right away, as I have already got it!!! One of the advantages of having is that the book has magically appeared there without my intervention. I had pre-ordered it!, and it has worked! I can get the hard copy any other time.

Now I will find out about the "transfer" and stop worrying, I think.

What catches my attention about The Sound of Broken Glass every time I read it is precisely what the title points to. There are two instances of it - the environs where a lot of the action takes place, Crystal Palace, and the way the building itself became an icon at the time and was then destroyed. Within this neighborhood,also Crystal Palace, we hear the sound of glass shattering at a pivotal point in the novel, and it has to do with Nadine, one of the intriguing characters in this novel. Both instances are related to the end of something - an era; a friendship.

And there is another sound, the haunting music of Andy Monahan's guitar. I could hear it, and immediately thought how wonderful it would be to have a CD of his songs. They went viral in the Internet, so why can't we have them? The guitar takes a life of its own and becomes another intoxicating character.

As with the other books in this series, we get several glimpses of Gemma and Duncan's life at home with their three children. Their antics and the problems they cause, together with the joy they bring, help in making the main characters more well rounded, and also more "human" - the way it should be, and what we find in other successful mysteries too. It would be also very boring and "unrealistic" to have only the bare bones of the sleuthing.

As I reach the end, I immediately visualize Robert Frost's poem "fire and ice" - as I always do when I am at that point. How could I not do it, when the scene reflects the poem so much?

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

And now, after having been held captive in Crombie's world for a long time, and loving it, I will start To Dwell In Darkness, which I shall have to read with artificial light, as I don't want to be "in the darkness"...
I definitely would recommend this novel to a Deborah Crombie fan, especially if that fan was up to date with the back stories of Duncan and Gemma's life together and their blended family. That background, and the "private" lives of those in their circle, does intrude on the darkness and complexity of the murder investigation. Therefore, I wouldn't recommend this book to a new reader unless that reader intended to continue with the series.

The case being investigated by Gemma and her D.S. Melody Talbot, has a back story too, and I'm not sure the reader needs to know so much through the flashbacks. It is what it is and I'm giving the book 4 stars because it's a great plot and as well written as Deborah Crombie's best mysteries. And thanks for the maps. They're part of the attraction of these books to someone who's never been there.
I like the complexity of these books, and the nuances of London--both modern and historical--explored by the author. What holds me back from the 5th star is the depth of characterization. These are whole characters, don't get me wrong, but there's something just out of reach in the main characters Duncan and Gemma, but mostly Duncan. Perhaps it's because the author, after 15 books, still narrates his scenes as "Kincaid" and that use of the last name has a subtle distancing effect. Overall, an excellent read with a focus this time on the indie music scene and the Crystal Palace.