Dreaming of the Bones

Written by Deborah Crombie

Narrated by Jenny Sterlin

Often compared to both Ruth Rendell and P.D. James, Deborah Crombie is internationally acclaimed for her deftly written mysteries that combine suspense, with lyrical prose. Sharply etched characters further enrich this story of tangled relationships and dark secrets. Twelve years after their divorce, Scotland Yard Superintendent Duncan Kincaid receives a phone call from his ex-wife Victoria asking for his help. While working on a biography of the late poet Lydia Brooke, she has uncovered information that has her convinced Lydia's suicide five years ago was really murder. As Duncan begins his investigation, another murder occurs closer to home. Now he finds himself frantically searching for clues in Lydia's complicated past to find the killer before he strikes again. Award-winning author Deborah Crombie has crafted a beautifully written, multilayered mystery that leaves you gasping with surprise. Jenny Sterlin's narration deftly creates an air of suspense while capturing every nuance of the language. Also available by Deborah Crombie: Kissed a Sad Goodbye.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Dec 11, 2009
• ISBN: 9781440779800

Deborah Crombie

Deborah Crombie's Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James novels have been nominated for the Agatha, Macavity and Edgar Awards and have received superb reviews. Deborah lives with her family in a small North Texas town. Visit her website at www.deborahcrombie.com

Reviews for Dreaming of the Bones

[Dwight Campbell · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

The reader is slow and affected. Could not get past.

[Lynn · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Great story! I love this series.
Easy to follow.

[sdramsey-298717 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

As engaging and engrossing as all in this series! I only gave it four stars because I was angry about the character killed off. ;)

[mahallett · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

disappointed. bizarre solution. she writes well but....

[mirihawk · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Another fabulous mystery about Kincaid and James. Well written. I think it took me till about 3/4 through to guess the murderer. Which for me is darn good. Read these books in order to get the full character development of the main characters.

[diana.hauser · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

DREAMING OF THE BONES (DUNCAN KINCAID/GEMMA JAMES BOOK 5) is written by Deborah Crombie.This was the best title yet. Each title in this series has improved and grown in scope - more detail; more in-depth characterization; a very personal sense of place; intriguing and multi-layered mystery; very thorough detecting by D Kincaid and G James.Duncan’s ex-wife, Vic, (Victoria Potts Kincaid McClellan) calls up out of the blue, asking for Duncan’s help. They have not seen each other for years - not since she walked out of their marriage without a word. Vic is working on a biography of one Lydia Brooke, a local poet. One of an inner circle of ‘literati’ from Cambridge in the 1960s, Lydia Brooke is of great interest to Vic. She can’t get over her suspicions that Lydia was murdered, as opposed to her ‘assumed’ suicide. Vic’s persistent questions begin to annoy and unsettle several of Lydia’s former friends. Is Vic in danger?I like the poems of Rupert Brooke that introduce most chapters. Brooke’s background and the references to Cambridge and its surrounding areas help set an atmosphere for the time period.I also like the way the case intertwines with Duncan and Gemma’s personal lives.Highly recommended.

[deltaqueen50 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

One of my favorite series is the one featuring Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James by Deborah Crombie as this author gets the mix of mystery and the on-going romance between the main characters just right. Dreaming of the Bones is the fifth book in the series, and we find Duncan and Gemma have settled into their working and romantic relationship. When Duncan’s ex-wife calls from Cambridge and ask him to look into a past death that was labelled a suicide, Gemma is not best pleased, but when another death that is definitely murder occurs she is quick to join Duncan in his investigation. This book will change the relationship between the two in a specific way and I am looking forward to seeing how they work things out in the future. I admire how this author realistically portrays her characters, they make adult decisions and are taking their relationship slowly as they learn to adjust to having a significant other in their lives after being let down in the past. Both a well done mystery and another step for this developing adult relationship, Dreaming of the Bones was a great addition to the series.

[mikedraper · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Deborah Crombie provides her fans a mystery that spans all the way back to WWI.The intricate story tells of Lydia Brooke, a poet. When she was a student at Cambridge in the 1960s, she emulated her namesake, Edwardian poet, Rupert Brooke.Lydia died five years prior to the events in this story. Her death was attributed to suicide.Dr. Vic McClellan, Duncan Kincaid's former wife, calls him out of the blue and asks for his help. Duncan and his lover, Gemma Jones, have a comfortable life together. Duncan is a police superintendent at Scotland Yard and Gemma is a police sergeant there.Gemma is a bit uncomfortable with Duncan seeing his former wife but doesn't say anything. While Duncan hadn't heard from Vic since she walked out on him twelve years ago, he agrees to help.When he does, the fun begins. The complexity winds up and the literary characters jump out of the page.Vic is doing a biography on Lydia and something about her death doesn't seem right. She wants Duncan to look at the case.Although it's not in Duncan's district and he takes vacation to investigate, the facts begin to unravelThere is a major surprise and a guest of characters who might be guilty of murder. Alfred Hitchcock would be watering at the mouth thinking about directing this novel as a movie.We visit the historical times back to WWI when Rupert Brooke died in 1915. Crumbie tells us that Brooke never saw action during the war. He died of blood poisoning at Division Field Day and when Churchill and other officials read his sonnets about the war, they thought he'd make a good martyr.There is good insight into the character of Lydia through the newsy letters she writes to her mother.Overall, interesting, an excellent police procedural and as Duncan and Emma examine the suspects, it is a story that captivates the reader.

[marsap_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is the fourth book in the Deborah Crombie series about Duncan Kincaid, an upper-class Scotland Yard superintendent, and Sergeant Gemma James, his partner and lover. The fact that I have not read the others in this series did not prevent me from enjoying this book. In this fourth book Vic McClellan, Duncan's ex-wife and a member of the English faculty at Cambridge, is writing a biography of Lydia Brooke, a Cambridge poet whose death five years earlier was attributed to suicide. Convinced that Lydia didn't kill herself, Vic asks Duncan to look into the poet's death. Duncan is reluctant, because of his personal feelings for Vic—she left their marriage 12 years earlier. But based on her evidence he is convinced that there may be some questions about the death. Soon he is even more certain when Vic is murdered. Assisted by Gemma, he sets out to find the killer. I found this book to be fast paced, well written (not always the case with mysteries), with a number of twists and turns. I also enjoyed the developing relationship between Duncan and Gemma, particularly as it is effected by Duncan’s feelings for his ex-wife. This is a series I plan on continuing to read. 4 out of 5 stars.

[tututhefirst_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I love this series, but found this book to be my least favorite of the ones I've read so far. The intertwining of all the literary allusions, and the need to consult literature to solve this one was a bit of a stretch. Still, I enjoyed getting some backfill on Kinkaid's previous marriage, and his relationship to the young boy Kit.It's definitely worth reading in sequence, but only as a placeholder to get to the next one

[carlyrose · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I had a rough start with this book--there were so many characters, but once I got them all sorted it was enjoyable.

[librarian1204 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

One of this author's earlier books that I had not read. Very much worth the read, this is an especially good book.

[auntieknickers · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James face new challenges as they must solve a literary mystery involving Duncan's ex-wife. This is one of the best of the series and also a stellar example of the literary mystery (by which I mean, a mystery involving literature). Highly recommended.

[crazymamie · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is the fifth book in Crombie's Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James series, and it is the best one so far. Finally Ms. Crombie gets the right combination of lovely writing, interesting characters, and intriguing mystery. In this one Kincaid is asked by his ex-wife Victoria to look into the closed suicide case of a poet that she is researching for a biography. Lydia Brooke has been dead for years, but Victoria thinks there is something suspicious about her apparent suicide, and grudgingly Kincaid agrees to look into it. What is so well done here is the bridging of a past mystery with a present one. I loved the merging story lines and the glimpses that we got into Lydia's thoughts through her old letters. I also greatly enjoyed the bits and pieces of Rupert Brooke poems that we were treated to at the beginning of each chapter - relevant not just because Lydia was slightly obsessed with him, but also because they are well chosen and speak to what the chapter is about. The mystery itself is interesting and believable, but what has kept me reading these books has been the characters. Do not start with this one if you have not read the others - the character development in these stories is important, and if you start in the middle, you will miss out, and quite possibly feel detached from the main players in the story. This is one set of mysteries where you want to begin at the beginning - the first few books are not nearly as good as this one, but to enjoy this one I am convinced that you need to read the others. Luckily, each book is better than the one before it, and this one is superb.

[wortklauberlein · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Victoria McClellan is immersed in writing a biography of tortured poet Lydia Brooke, who several times attempted suicide and apparently succeeded in the end. But things don't add up for Vic, so she contacts Scotland Yard's Duncan Kincaid, the man she walked out on years earlier.He meets with her and ferrets out the police report on Lydia's death, but is not convinced Vic's suspicion is worth pursuing. Until, of course and most unfortunately, Vic too dies of what looks like a heart attack but mostly likely is poisoning.The present-day narrative of the search for a killer is interspersed with Lydia's letters to her mother and the poetry of Rupert Brooke. Deborah Crombie deftly weaves together these strands from three eras at Cambridge. One of the pleasures of reading a Crombie mystery is that the characters are fully real and the stories of their lives are nearly as engrossing as the mystery. And a mystery this one is: I guessed who the killer was at several points along the way, and each time I was wrong. I was still guessing when the truth was revealed.

[fmrox · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Duncan Kincaid, Scotland Yard detective, gets a phone call from his estranged ex-wife of 10 plus years to investigate an unusual suicide of a local poet. He's quickly pulled into mystery and other deaths occur. It's difficult for him to investigate as it is out of his jurisdiction but his faithful partner and now girlfriend comes to his aid to help get him in trouble.This 5th installment of the series isn't nearly as brilliant as Crombie's other adventures. It starts very slow. The plot seems to talk around the mystery and the answers only come out when the two detectives evenually guess a theoretical answer. It doesn't seem very well played out, but could have been. I'm disappointed with this story. I will have to try another to see if I can continue along this journey with Gemma James and Duncan Kincaid.

[cmwilson101 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is the fifth in a British detective series centered around Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James. Both are interesting and well drawn characters; Gemma is especially sympathetic (to me, anyway!) as she struggles to be accepted in a male-dominated field. The story in this book occurs as Duncan's ex-wife calls and asks him to help her with a suspected cold case. An entire cast of interesting and fleshed-out characters are drawn into the story, which is mulit-layered, complex, and interesting.

[thornton37814 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Duncan's ex-wife contacts him when her research on a biography of Lydia Brooke turns up evidence that the poet may have been murdered instead of having committed suicide. When Duncan takes a look at the police reports, he notices some irregularities, but the local police refuse to reopen it. Duncan begins his unofficial investigation and is soon joined by his partner Gemma. This was a well-plotted, well-written mystery with enough suspects to make the reader keep guessing. Crombie is an excellent writer. The poetry by Rupert Brooke that headed each chapter was well-chosen, and I enjoyed it as well as the mystery itself.

[tigerlilyoz · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I like this author, I picked two suspects and was right with one. When I finished the book and knew the details I realised the different clues throught out the book. It is well written and I like the two main characters.