Water Like a Stone
(Libby/OverDrive eBook, Kindle)

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Published
HarperCollins , 2009.
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Available from Libby/OverDrive

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Description

When Scotland Yard superintendent Duncan Kincaid takes Gemma, Kit, and Toby for a holiday visit to his family in Cheshire, Gemma is soon entranced with Nantwich's pretty buildings and the historic winding canal, and young Kit is instantly smitten with his cousin Lally.

But their visit is marred by family tensions exacerbated by the unraveling of Duncan's sister Juliet's marriage. And tensions are brought to the breaking point on Christmas Eve with Juliet's discovery of a mummified infant's body interred in the wall of an old dairy barn—a tragedy hauntingly echoed by the recent drowning of Peter Llewellyn, a schoolmate of Lally's.

Meanwhile, on her narrowboat, former social worker Annie Lebow is living a life of self-imposed isolation and preparing for a lonely Christmas, made more troubling by her meeting earlier in the day with the Wains, a traditional boating family whose case precipitated Annie's leaving her job.

As the police make their inquiries into the infant's death, Kincaid discovers that life in the lovely market town of his childhood is far from idyllic and that the dreaming reaches of the Shropshire Union Canal hold dark and deadly secrets . . . secrets that may threaten everything and everyone he holds most dear.

More Details

Format
eBook
Street Date
10/13/2009
Language
English
ISBN
9780061828119

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Published Reviews

Booklist Review

Although the presence of Scotland Yard detectives Gemma James and Duncan Kincaid provides the glue that ultimately holds Crombie's latest novel together, the pair seems less involved in solving crime this time than in previous adventures. That doesn't stop this multifaceted mystery from being one of the best in Crombie's long-running series. Christmas with Duncan's family proves just as stressful as Gemma feared, though not in the way she anticipated. Moments after arriving at the elder Kincaid's farmhouse, Duncan is called away by his sister, who has discovered the body of an infant entombed in the wall of a building she is renovating. The sad, horrifying discovery sets the stage for a tightly knit, two-pronged tale, which has a retired social worker at its heart. Duncan's teenage son, newly come to live with his father and Gemma, and Duncan's sister, whose family is disintegrating, are in sharp focus here, as is a canal-boat family whose suffering reminds Duncan and Gemma of recent losses of their own. As in books by Elizabeth George and P. D. James, the intriguing personal relationships and family dynamics drive this well-crafted, impressive mystery-drama. --Stephanie Zvirin Copyright 2007 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
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Publisher's Weekly Review

The start of Crombie's solid 11th contemporary police procedural featuring Duncan Kincaid of Scotland Yard and Gemma James of the Notting Hill Metropolitan Police (after 2004's In a Dark House) finds the two detectives, also romantic partners, in the English countryside with their children to celebrate Christmas with Kincaid's family. But the trip turns into a busman's holiday when Kincaid's sister, Juliet Newcombe, finds the mummified corpse of an infant in the wall of a building she's renovating. That discovery proves but the first of many mysteries that soon invade the quiet Cheshire community-a woman who once worked as a social worker is murdered, and Juliet finds evidence that her own husband and his partner may be embezzlers. Crombie's combination of the fair-play whodunit with a psychological examination of her characters may remind some readers of P.D. James, but her sleuths lack the depth of James's Commander Dalgleish. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
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Library Journal Review

Three victims murdered more than ten years apart have Scotland Yard detectives Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James on the hunt in this latest from Crombie, who lives in northern Texas. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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Kirkus Book Review

Christmas dinner will just have to wait for murder. Scotland Yard inspectors Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James, along with his son Kit and her son Toby, barely get through the door of Duncan's parents' house in Cheshire for a holiday visit when his sister Juliet, a building renovator, calls him out to her job site, where she's uncovered the body of a baby mortared into a barn wall. While Duncan and Ronnie Babcock, an inspector in the local CID, try to identify it, young Kit finds the corpse of his friend Annie Lebow, a retired social worker who's been living on a narrowboat. The discovery revives nightmare memories of his own mother's death. The Wains, narrowboaters and former clients of Annie's, are determined to keep mum about their run-ins with Social Services. Meanwhile, Juliet's marriage disintegrates under the gleeful eye of her husband's business partner Piers, whose son Leo, together with Juliet's daughter Lally, seem determined to corrupt young Kit. Duncan, hard-pressed to soothe Kit, placates Gemma (who's angered that she's babysitting instead of participating in the murder investigation), defends his sister, works the two cases and eventually discovers something rather unsurprising--that family reunions are less friendly than one might expect. The narrowboats are intriguing, and it's comforting to think that Gemma and Duncan are together for the long haul, but Crombie needs to curb her love for red herrings, which swell her plot to fantastic proportions. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
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Booklist Reviews

Although the presence of Scotland Yard detectives Gemma James and Duncan Kincaid provides the glue that ultimately holds Crombie's latest novel together, the pair seems less involved in solving crime this time than in previous adventures. That doesn't stop this multifaceted mystery from being one of the best in Crombie's long-running series. Christmas with Duncan's family proves just as stressful as Gemma feared, though not in the way she anticipated. Moments after arriving at the elder Kincaid's farmhouse, Duncan is called away by his sister, who has discovered the body of an infant entombed in the wall of a building she is renovating. The sad, horrifying discovery sets the stage for a tightly knit, two-pronged tale, which has a retired social worker at its heart. Duncan's teenage son, newly come to live with his father and Gemma, and Duncan's sister, whose family is disintegrating, are in sharp focus here, as is a canal-boat family whose suffering reminds Duncan and Gemma of recent losses of their own. As in books by Elizabeth George and P. D. James, the intriguing personal relationships and family dynamics drive this well-crafted, impressive mystery-drama. ((Reviewed January 1 & 15, 2007)) Copyright 2007 Booklist Reviews.

Copyright 2007 Booklist Reviews.
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Library Journal Reviews

Three victims murdered more than ten years apart have Scotland Yard detectives Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James on the hunt in this latest from Crombie, who lives in northern Texas. Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
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Library Journal Reviews

After Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James arrive at the Cheshire home of Duncan's parents, he must leave to help his sister, who has found the body of a small child walled up in a barn she is renovating. Because both Kincaid and James are high-ranking police detectives in London, it is natural that they feel the pull of the investigation, but the Kincaid family requires their attention as well. Duncan's sister is being accused of infidelity, and her new construction business is shaky at best. Her husband is a control freak and causes much dissention among the children and his in-laws. When two more deaths occur, it slowly becomes evident that they are linked. As with other works by Crombie, the puzzle of the story is as important as the characters involved. She manages to weave a complex tale around simple details of people's lives. Because she is an American writing about the police in Great Britain, she is often compared to Elizabeth George and Martha Grimes. However, she is so good at illustrating the plight of the average person in modern cultural and economic situations beyond the control of any individual that she reads more like Stephen Booth. Crombie lives in a small northern Texas town. [See Prepub Mystery, LJ 10/1/06.]

[Page 52]. Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.

Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.
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Publishers Weekly Reviews

The start of Crombie's solid 11th contemporary police procedural featuring Duncan Kincaid of Scotland Yard and Gemma James of the Notting Hill Metropolitan Police (after 2004's In a Dark House ) finds the two detectives, also romantic partners, in the English countryside with their children to celebrate Christmas with Kincaid's family. But the trip turns into a busman's holiday when Kincaid's sister, Juliet Newcombe, finds the mummified corpse of an infant in the wall of a building she's renovating. That discovery proves but the first of many mysteries that soon invade the quiet Cheshire community—a woman who once worked as a social worker is murdered, and Juliet finds evidence that her own husband and his partner may be embezzlers. Crombie's combination of the fair-play whodunit with a psychological examination of her characters may remind some readers of P.D. James, but her sleuths lack the depth of James's Commander Dalgleish. (Feb.)

[Page 34]. Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
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Citations

APA Citation, 7th Edition (style guide)

Crombie, D. (2009). Water Like a Stone . HarperCollins.

Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)

Crombie, Deborah. 2009. Water Like a Stone. HarperCollins.

Chicago / Turabian - Humanities (Notes and Bibliography) Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)

Crombie, Deborah. Water Like a Stone HarperCollins, 2009.

Harvard Citation (style guide)

Crombie, D. (2009). Water like a stone. HarperCollins.

MLA Citation, 9th Edition (style guide)

Crombie, Deborah. Water Like a Stone HarperCollins, 2009.

Note! Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy. Citation formats are based on standards as of August 2021.

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