Water Like a Stone by Deborah Crombie

Water Like a Stone
by Deborah Crombie

One of the pleasures of leading the libraries' Just Desserts mystery fiction discussion group meetings is introducing "new" authors to the group's members -- authors that many of the members may not have tried before -- and watching the readers get "hooked" on a terrific new series. That doesn't often happen with me, myself, though. This was one exception -- the Just Desserts group read and discussed Deborah Crombie's Water Like a Stone at our April 2014 meeting, and I really, really enjoyed reading this particular book...my first Crombie title. Though it is the 11th book in Crombie's Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James series, I didn't feel as if I was missing huge amounts of backstory, especially since this novel delved into the background of Inspector Duncan Kincaid's childhood, and enough details of his and Gemma's working and personal relationship came to light through the plot. Crombie provides great descriptions of the places and people in this contemporary British police procedural novel, set around Christmas in the English countryside. The world of narrow boats and the English canal system are a major plot point, and I found the topic fascinating. The characters seem fully human -- "real" if you will -- and I quickly grew to care about them and their fates. It turns out that there is a great deal of character growth throughout the Kincaid/James series, so it's probably best to start at the beginning of the series, if you plan to read them all. But, if you'd just like to sample this author's works, I highly recommend Water Like a Stone. -- recommended by Scott C. - Bennett Martin Public Library [ See Scott's Reviewer Profile ]

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try the titles on our Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James Just Desserts series handout.]

[Also available in book-on-cd format.]

[ official Deborah Crombie web site ]

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