Deborah Crombie, Water Like A Stone

Water Like A Stone

Deborah Crombie

Morrow, Feb 2007, $24.95, 416 pp.

ISBN 006525279

Police officers Duncan Kincaid, his live-in lover Gemma James, her five year old son, Toby, his thirteen-year-old son Kit and their two dogs are spending the Christmas holidays with his parents. Their vacation gets off to a bad start when Duncan's sister Juliet, a builder, finds the remains of an infant in a walled-up part of the building that she is remodeling. Kit is trying to befriend Juliet's daughter Lilly who is still mourning the drowning death of her friend Peter.

Juliet's husband Casper has turned against his wife thanks to the machinations of his business partner Piers because she knows he is embezzling funds in their investment business. A social worker trying to help a former client who is mortally ill is murdered and Duncan finds himself helping the local authorities on that case. What nobody realizes is the drowned teen, the social worker and the infant are connected and finding the killer of one of the victims will lead to the murderer(s) of the other two.

Deborah Crombie is one of this reviewer's favorite authors of police procedurals using an England-style tone although the author is American. There is lots of action but this is a character-driven mystery as readers get a personal glimpse into the lives of all the characters especially Duncan and Gemma. He cannot help but get involved in a case in which his friend heads the investigation and leads to a loved one almost getting killed.

Harriet Klausner