The sound of broken glass

While husband Duncan Kincaid remains at home to help foster-child Charlotte adjust, Gemma James works a gruesome murder in Crystal Palace, an area of London named after a magnificent glass exhibition hall that was destroyed in the 1930s. The discovery of a dead barrister in a seedy hotel room leads Gemma and colleague Detective Sergeant Melody Talbot to a talented young guitarist who grew up in the neighborhood. Andy Monahan doesn't seem like a killer, but it's clear to Gemma that he's keeping something back. When a second barrister is killed in a similarly gruesome fashion, Andy's link to both victims and to Crystal Palace puts him dead center in the investigation. The question, of course, is, Will Andy be next? More predictable than usual and not the best choice to introduce readers to the series, this will nevertheless please Crombie's many fans. They will already be invested in James-Kincaid family dynamics and know toddler Charlotte's tragic story, which began in Necessary as Blood (2006) and is referenced without much explanation here.--Zvirin, Stephanie Copyright 2010 Booklist

Bestseller Crombie puts together past and present in her solid, finely controlled 15th novel featuring married police detectives Gemma James and Duncan Kincaid (after 2012's No Mark upon Her). While Duncan looks after their three-year-old foster daughter at home, Gemma and Det. Sgt. Melody Talbot investigate the murder of barrister Vincent Arnott, found in a seedy hotel in London's Crystal Palace area, naked, tied with a belt, and strangled. When the body of a second barrister, killed in exactly the same way, turns up, physical evidence proves the same person murdered both men. Gemma and Melody painstakingly and methodically unravel the clues, finding connections that began 15 years earlier in the Crystal Palace area. Flashbacks show how the meeting of a lonely 13-year-old boy and a recently widowed teacher had grave consequences. The unfolding domestic relationship between Gemma and Duncan softens and humanizes them. The city of London, foggy, blustery, and historic, provides a seductive background. Agent: Nancy Yost, Nancy Yost Literary Agency. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Friendships go seriously awry. When DS Melody Talbot spends the night with guitarist Andy Monahan, a witness and possibly even a suspect in a murder case, she can't decide which is worse: having to confess her indiscretion to her boss, Acting DCI Gemma James, or to her good mate Doug Cullen, a copper laid up with a bad leg. Andy had argued with barrister Vincent Arnott, the victim, between sets at a pub in the Crystal Palace area. Could the musician have followed Arnott to the sleazy Belvedere Hotel, plied him with drugs, stripped him naked, trussed him up, then strangled him with a scarf that left threads embedded in his neck? With an assist from her husband, Duncan Kincaid, now on leave from his Scotland Yard purview to take care of little orphan Charlotte, whom they hope to adopt, Gemma interviews Andy's manager, a record producer hoping to pair Andy with new sensation Poppy, band members and kin. When another barrister, Shaun Francis, is murdered in identical fashion, the only link between the two dead men seems to be Andy. It is not until Duncan listens to a tale of a 13-year-old's betrayal that tawdry gossip and legal shenanigans come to light, implicating a widowed French teacher and a much-bullied boy nursing grievances that cry out for revenge. Another solid outing for the reliable Crombie (No Mark Upon Her, 2012, etc.), who turns a judicious eye on secrets that can overwhelm what they're meant to protect despite the best intentions.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.