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

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.

Well Developed Characters

Crombie does a wonderful job of developing the characters at their surface and with aplumb, their depth.

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.