ISBN: 0-7887-4085-7 Order from: Recorded Books
A sad and complex mystery, well-paced and enjoyable, despite sometimes intrusive flashbacks.
Reviewed by David on October 06, 2003
Genre: Mystery
Synopsis: This is an unabridged recording of Dreaming of the Bones. The last thing Detective Superindendant Kincaid expect is a request for help from his ex-wife Victoria. It took years for Kincaid to get over Vic's leaving him, but now he is happy with a new relationship with Gemma, a fellow ivestigator at Scotland yard.
Victoria, a professor of English Literature at Cambridge, is writing a biography of Lydia Brooke, and influencial Poet. But Victoria is convinced that Lydia's death five years ago was not a suicide as everyone else believes, but a murder.
Kincaid's reluctant assistance turns into a intensely personal quest, with both pain and hope as its outcomes.
Full Review: This is a pleasant, well-paced mystery, with main characters gradually becoming more important to the reader. Although literate and dealing with literary environment, the book doesn't overload one on references, thus allowing the typical reader to be pleased with one's erudition.
There is a seprate thread created by extracts from Lydia's letters, which, in essence, creates the bibliography of this fictitious although well-described poet, and hints at the solution to the mystery. This, although providing some extra background, sometimes detracts from the main plot thread.
Crombie doesn't shy away from painful events here, and although the book ends with a successful resolution of the mystery, the maincharacters—and the reader—do not emerge unscathed.
An enjoyable mystery, with perhaps its best achievement the characters for whom the reader feels sympathy and concern.
Overall: 6.5; Plot: 5.5; Characters: 6; Style: 6; World-building: 6; Originality: 5;
Copyright date 1997, Recorded Books, 2000, Audio cassette, 6 cassettes
ISBN: 0-7887-4085-7 Order from: Recorded Books