Review: The Sound of Broken Glass – Deborah Crombie
Thursday, March 20th, 2014Hardcover: 368 pages Publisher: William Morrow; First Edition edition (February 19, 2013) Language: English ISBN-10: 0061990639 ISBN-13: 978-0061990632 |
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Characters:
Duncan Kincaid – Police Investigator
Emma James – Police Inspector
Melody Talbot – Detective
Andy Monahan – Inspiring Musician
Synopsis:
When a man is found bound and gagged, dead in a motel room, the main suspect becomes a young Up and coming musician who was one of the last people to have contact with the man. But the true answers will lie in the past.
Review
This was truly a book I couldn’t put down. From the time I picked it up, to the next day I was almost constantly reading it. The characters pulled me in, the story grabbed me, and seeing the history unfold and the events lead up to where the past and present connected proved to be very interesting. While I believe this is #15 in a series, I hadn’t read any of the prior series before receiving a copy of this. This is one I’ll definitely go back and check out previous entries on.
The author, born and raised in Texas does a very good job, in my opinion, of capturing the feel of England. I didn’t know until I had gotten to the end of the book that the author was not British. She really knows her stuff, and how to spin a great tale and create great characters.
On a scale, I’d say for older teens and adults due to some dark imagery and the content, although there aren’t a whole lot of objectionable material, there is enough that fans of the cozy mystery might not find it as appealing. But for those who want to read a great thriller, go out and grab The Sound of Broken Glass, and be sure to drop back by and let us know what you thought.
About the Author
Deborah Crombie was born in Dallas and grew up in Richardson, Texas, a suburb north of Dallas, second child of Charlie and Mary Darden. A rather solitary childhood (brother Steve is ten years older) was blessed by her maternal grandmother, Lillian Dozier, a retired teacher who taught her to read very early. After a rather checkered educational career, which included dropping out of high school at sixteen, she graduated from Austin College in Sherman, Texas, with a degree in biology.
She then worked in advertising and newspapers, and attended the Rice University Publishing Program. A post-university trip to England, however, cemented a life-long passion for Britain, and she later immigrated to the UK with her first husband, Peter Crombie, a Scot, living first in Edinburgh, Scotland, and then in Chester, England.
After returning to Dallas and working for several years in her family business (manufacturer’s reps for theatre concessions) while raising her daughter Kayti, she wrote her first Detective Superintendent Duncan Kincaid/Sergeant Gemma James novel. A Share in Death [Scribner, 1993], was subsequently given Agatha and Macavity nominations for Best First Novel of 1993. The fifth novel, Dreaming of the Bones (Scribner 1997), a New York Times Notable Book for 1997, was short-listed by Mystery Writers of America for the 1997 Edgar Award for Best Novel, won the Macavity award for Best Novel, and was voted by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association as one of the hundred best mysteries of the century. Her subsequent novels have been received with critical acclaim and are widely read internationally, particularly in Germany.
In 2009, Where Memories Lie won the Macacity Award for Best Novel. In 2010, Necessary as Blood received a Macavity nomination for Best Novel.
Crombie’s novels are published in North America, Japan, Germany, Italy, France, Norway, the Netherlands, Czechoslovakia, Spain, Romania, Greece, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and numerous other countries.. The latest novel in the series, No Mark Upon Her, will be published in August, 2011 by Pan Macmillan in the UK, and in February, 2012 by William Morrow in the US.
Although she travels to England several times a year, Crombie now lives in McKinney, Texas, an historic town north of Dallas, sharing a 1905 house with her husband, Rick Wilson, two German shepherds (Hallie and Neela), and three cats. She is currently working on her fifteenth Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James novel, as yet untitled.
*Disclaimer* A special thanks goes out to Andrea at Harper Collins for a review copy of this book. It in no way influenced my review. You can discuss it here or join my facebook page and discuss it there.