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Dreaming of the Bones [Mass Market Paperback]

Deborah Crombie (Author)
4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)

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Book Description

January 30, 2007

It is the call Scotland Yard Superintendent Duncan Kincaid never expected—and one he certainly doesn't want. Victoria, his ex-wife, who walked out without an explanation more than a decade ago, asks him to look into the suicide of local poet, Lydia Brooke—a case that's been officially closed for five years. The troubled young writer's death, Victoria claims, might well have been murder.

No one is more surprised than Kincaid himself when he agrees to investigate—not even his partner and lover, Sergeant Gemma James. But it's a second death that raises the stakes and plunges Kincaid and James into a labyrinth of dark lies and lethal secrets that stretches all the way back through the twentieth century—a death that most assuredly is murder, one that has altered Duncan Kincaid's world forever.


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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"Deborah Crombie might be the most British of American mystery novelists," said an astute reviewer in reference to Mourn Not Your Dead, the fourth book in her excellent series about Duncan Kincaid, an inoffensively upper-class Scotland Yard superintendent, and Sergeant Gemma James, his rougher-edged partner and lover. In addition to her finely tuned ear for the subtler nuances of Britspeak, Crombie--a resident of Richardson, Texas--achieves a rare and therefore enviable balance between the details of her characters' private lives and the plot of each particular book. That delicate balance is especially welcome in Dreaming of the Bones, when Kincaid's former wife, Dr. Victoria McClellan, threatens his personal and professional equanimity. A Cambridge don, Vic has been writing a biography of poet Lydia Brooke, who claimed kinship to the distinguished World War I bard Rupert Brooke, and whose suicide five years before is now beginning to appear suspiciously like murder. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"Fascinating...Multilayered."
--The New York Times Book Review

"A story of death, obsession and secrets."
--Houston Chronicle

"An elegant, literary mystery...outstanding."
--Mystery Lovers Bookshop News

"Deborah Crombie at her best...This is a story of great depth and understanding."
--Mystery News

"Dreaming of the Bones will make you cry and catch your breath in surprise."
--Chicago Tribune

"Poignant."
--The Orlando Sentinel

"Haunting...The best book in an already accomplished series."
--Publishers Weekly (starred review)

A New York Times Notable Book of the Year

Nominated for the Edgar and the Agatha awards for The Year's Best Novel --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

  • Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages
  • Publisher: Avon (January 30, 2007)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0061150401
  • ISBN-13: 978-0061150401
  • Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.2 x 1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #212,469 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Deborah Crombie grew up near Dallas, Texas, but from a child always had the inexplicable feeling that she belonged in England. After earning a Bachelor's degree in Biology from Austin College in Sherman, Texas, she made her first trip to Britain and felt she'd come home. She later lived in both Chester, England, and Edinburgh, Scotland, where she failed to make as good a use of being cold and poor as JK Rowling.

It was not until almost a decade later that, living once more in Texas and raising her small daughter, she had the idea for her first novel, a mystery set in Yorkshire. She had no credentials other than a desire to write and a severe case of homesickness for Britain. A Share in Death, published in 1993, was short-listed for both Agatha and Macavity awards for Best First Novel and was awarded the Macavity.

Crombie's fifth novel, Dreaming of the Bones, was a New York Times Notable Book in 1997, was named by the Independent Mystery Booksellers as one of the 100 Best Crime Novels of the Century, was an Edgar nominee for Best Novel, and won the Macavity award for Best Novel.

Subsequent novels have been published to critical acclaim and in a dozen languages. Crombie's fourteenth novel featuring Metropolitan Police detectives Superintendent Duncan Kincaid and Inspector Gemma James, No Mark Upon Her, will be published by Harper Collins in February 2012.

The author still lives in Texas but spends several months out of the year in Britain, maintaining a precarious balance between the two, and occasionally confusing her cultural references.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
45 of 46 people found the following review helpful
A terrific read . . . January 29, 2001
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Except for Martha Grimes, I don't usually go in for English mystery series, the sort of thing with continuing characters and starring a Scotland Yard investigator, nor have I read any others in this series. But I can see why this novel was voted a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and why it was nominated for both the Edgar and the Agatha.

Detective Superintendent Duncan Kincaid has been divorced for twelve years, his life is ticking right along, and he has a nicely developing romance with his sergeant, Gemma James. And then he hears from his ex-wife, Victoria, now a professor of modern English poetry at Cambridge, who has been researching a biography of Lydia Brooke, who died in what Victoria has come to believe are suspicious circumstances a few years before. She wants Duncan's help, and he agrees, to Gemma's consternation. Sounds like a pretty routine plot, doesn't it? It's not, believe me. Where most writers in this genre concentrate on the plot, with characters who are less than three-dimensional, or (again, like Martha Grimes) develop wonderful characters but tend to stint the mystery itself, Crombie succeeds very well at both. Duncan and Gemma and Victoria all come alive, as do the supporting players, and you won't guess at the solution to the mystery until the denouement, either. By the end of the book, Duncan's life has become permanently more complicated, and I want to know what happens next! (Obviously, I'm going to have to go back and read the first four books in this series before tackling the sixth one.)

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28 of 29 people found the following review helpful
wonderful March 16, 1999
Format:Mass Market Paperback
So how can an author keep the readers interested in the two main characters after they become romantically involved with each other? For Deborah Crombie, it is easy. Bring in Duncan's ex-wife with a several-year-old murder masquerading as a suicide, her 11 year-old son, another murder, and still tie in Duncan and Gemma's explorations of their new relationship. This is a book about shattered dreams, new expectations, surprise revelations, and distorted relationships.

DREAMING OF THE BONES is, at times, funny, extremely sad, touching, and infuriating. It is Crombie's most emotionally complex book yet. I couldn't put it down and read it cover-to-cover in one sitting. Enjoy!

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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
By amg
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Let me first admit to having had several reservations before starting to read Dreaming of the Bones: the blurb told me Miss Crombie is an American writer, from Texas, writing an "English Mystery"; the protagonist detectives are of different social levels; and the word "bones" is in the title (a personal foible). The word "formula" began echoing in my mind, but having the book in hand with crisp pages full of promise is a strong antidote to untested doubt and the reading proved itself rewarding on many levels, the most pleasurable being the superb quality of the writing itself.

The story can be read first as a straight who-done-it with sufficiently engaging plot subtleties to give casual readers enough doubt to pull them through to the end, all the while wondering and in the end being truly surprised. For the mystery afficionada, this is genuine goods and well worth the investment.

On another level, the skillful and very effective weaving of the intriguing plot with character's past and present histories, snippets of a book being written by one of the characters, along with the on-going lives of the detectives themselves is seamless and masterful, particularly given the ambitious task Miss Crombie posed for herself as a writer to make it look "easy" to the reader. Not only does she succeed, but she created an avid admirer in the process. This book frequently leaps out of the mass-market mystery genre, with its often over-pared editorial limitations, into the literary mystery, bringing to my mind a comparison to PD James and her scrupulous attention to detail. A fine first read for me and well recommended for those who love "English Mysteries".
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
An okay book!
I enjoyed this book. It was interesting to hear how the English people live. There sure was a lot of "tea drinking"! Good characters!
Published 2 months ago by bookworm
Voices from the past
This is the fifth in the DUNCAN KINCAID/GEMMA JAMES series of police procedural/cozy mysteries that began with ALL SHALL BE WELL. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Jeanne Tassotto
A Winner, highly recommended
"Dreaming of the Bones", the fifth installment of Deborah Crombie's Duncan Kincaid / Gemma Jones series, is a winner or nominee of several major mystery awards. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Mike in Glen Head, NY
A real Hit
Her writing is extraordinary; paints a beautiful picture of the English countryside and her prose is wonderful. Her characters are charming and the plot is excellent. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Enigma46
A big disappointment
I like cozies, and I've enjoyed the first 4 books in this series. They're well-plotted mysteries, with interesting characterizations.

But this one is disappointing. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Reader in New York
slow start, great finish
during the first third of this book I found myself not liking it as much as the previous novels in the series. Why? Read more
Published on May 6, 2010 by Matthew Schiariti
Poetry, Rupert Brooke and Murder - Fabulous!
First Sentence: The post slid through the letter box, cascading onto the tile floor of the entry hall with a sound like the wind rustling through bamboo. Read more
Published on January 12, 2010 by L. J. Roberts
Great story
I have read a few of this author's books and have enjoyed them thoroughly. The characters are well defined and this story takes them into new territory not only in their work but... Read more
Published on May 8, 2009 by Nancy J. Richmond
A New Phase for Duncan and Gemma
5th in Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James series. Duncan's ex-wife calls and asks him for his help in figuring out whether a poet actually killed herself or if it was murder. Read more
Published on April 20, 2008 by A. Arey
A bit uncredible.
After reading Leave the Grave Green as an audiobook and enjoying it thoroughly, I was tempted to read more Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James mysteries. I picked out Dreaming of the Bones. Read more
Published on May 20, 2007 by K.T. Reid
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Inside This Book (learn more)
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Lydia Brooke, Morgan Ashby, Miss Pope, Rupert Brooke, Darcy Eliot, Adam Lamb, Daphne Morris, Alec Byrne, Dame Margery, Margery Lester, Nathan Winter, High Street, Laura Miller, Virginia Woolf, English Faculty, Iris Winslow, Ralph Peregrine, Verity Whitecliff, Bob Potts, Byron's Pool, Duncan Kincaid, Father Denny, Scotland Yard, Eugenia Potts, Gemma James
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