Dreaming of the Bones [Mass Market Paperback]

Deborah Crombie (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 1998 | Series: Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James Novels

After twelve years, the last person Scotland Yard Superintendent Duncan Kincaid expects to hear from is his ex-wife Victoria.  But this is no social call.  In her biographical research on troubled poet Lydia Brooke, Vic's uncovered reasons to believe Lydia's death five years ago was not suicide.

Much to Kincaid's surprise--and the unease of his partner and lover, Sergeant Gemma James--he finds he can't refuse Vic's request to look into the long-closed case.  The police report raises questions, but not enough to reopen the investigation--until a second death occurs, this one clearly murder.

Now Duncan and Gemma must sift through a tangle of relationships, secrets, and lies to find not just a killer, but a secret which will change their own lives forever.

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

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Bantam (December 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553579312
• ISBN-13: 978-0553579314
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,129,253 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

44 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A terrific read . . ., January 29, 2001

By 

Michael K. Smith (South Louisiana) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Dreaming of the Bones (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.)

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars wonderful, March 16, 1999

By 

neurondoc (Bethesda, MD United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dreaming of the Bones (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!

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Rewarding Read on Many Levels, August 28, 2004

By 

amg (Washington) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dreaming of the Bones (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".