Leave the Grave Green

By: Deborah Crombie

Narrated by: Michael Deehy

When a body is discovered floating in a Thames river lock one dreary morning, Superintendent Duncan Kincaid and Sergeant Gemma James are summoned from Scotland Yard to Chiltern Hills. The dead man is Connor Swann, son-in-law of two of London's most renowned opera personalities. And prints on the corpse's neck suggest that Swann was strangled. As Duncan and Gemma explore the quiet woods above the Thames and the flamboyant world of London opera in search of answers, they discover a tangled web of family secrets and hidden emotions. And when Duncan finds himself dangerously drawn to a suspect, he and Gemma must sort out their complicated feelings for each other.

©1995 Deborah Darden Crombie (P)2008 BBC Audiobooks America

Not one of her best .

I really enjoy most of the books in this series, though I've read them out of order. This is the first one that actually bored me. It just seemed to drag. If this had been the first I'd read in this series I doubt if I would have read another.

Matthew is dead

A good mystery with believable characters very well narrated and therefore very enjoyable to listen to.

Satisfying!

So far I have read six of the books in this series and I've enjoyed every one of them.

For me the books have just the right mix of a good mystery and well defined, interesting characters. The settings in this book are described with enough detail that I can "see" them in my mind. When I finish one of these books I feel satisfied and eager to read another of the series.

The first Deborah Crombie book I read was the first in this series. I've read the other five books out of sequence. That hasn't affected my enjoyment of the books. However, there is a developing relationship between the two main characters that might be best enjoyed if read in sequence.

Michael Deehy's narration was excellent for me.

Good human mystery

Crombie really is a good mystery writer of the older school where character development and a truly interesting, well developed plot are what the mystery novel is about. She doesn't shy from the bad, hard or tragic but neither does she make gore and psycho sickness a primary component. This is a relief! for me. I don't know what it is about our world now that makes horror and sociopaths such popular subjects to the point it's hard to find new mysteries that aren't written these ways. The fact is that most people, even most evil doers aren't psychopaths!! Most people do their bad acts out of ignorance and/or out of misguidance due to our distorted value system . . . so what's all this horror love about? Horror and the opposite genre - sappy cozies ;) Anyway, for a good mystery, Crombie is good.

Another great installment

Deborah Crombie has written another fine installment in the Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James series. It was another suspenseful mystery. I am intrigued by this series and have already downloaded the next installment.

Enjoyed Immensely

The ending to the mystery was surprisingly enjoyable but the ending to the 2 detectives wss horribly unsatisfactory

Good!

I read the reviews and so gave this one a skip until I read another one of Ms Crombie's books, and thought it was great, so back I came to this one (and all the rest as well). In this case, it was just too bad that the other readers weren't impressed, because I thoroughly enjoyed this book. If you like your mysteries less gruesome and more cerebral, you'll probably enjoy it too.

Oh, the Tangled Webs We Weave . . .

When the son-in-law of two famous opera personalities is found dead, floating in the Thames River, Superintendent Duncan Kincaid and Sergeant Gemma James from Scotland Yard are on the case. And as usual, NOTHING is as it appears . . . secrets, lies, and cover-ups abound . . . and Duncan is not above getting stars in his eyes (once again) sigh . . . with the young, beautiful widow of the dead man . . . Gemma learns that she loves the voice of the retired opera singer (this I can deal with) . . . Book three in the series is marginally better than book two, but lags behind book one . . . I had high hopes for the series based on the first in the series, but I think this will be the last of this author's books for me for a while . . . I like the mystery, the interaction between Gemma and Duncan, the search for the killer, but I find all the other stuff tiring . . . at Duncan's age, he needs to be more focused, more mature and should have learned from his divorce . . . Gemma's struggles raising a young son single handedly are touching, interesting and of more substance to me . . . overall, the story is good, conclusion satisfying.

I’m really enjoying this series.

I read book two first, and then book one, and then this one, book three, and I’m really glad I found the series.

I find it engaging and relatively realistic and not too over the top or hard to follow or anything I might complain about…

I enjoyed it!

I really enjoyed the story line. The narrator did a great job. Kept me engaged