A Share in Death

By: Deborah Crombie

Narrated by: Michael Deehy

Length: 7 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's summary

A week's holiday in a luxurious hotel is just what Scotland Yard's Superintendent Duncan Kincaid needs. But his vacation ends dramatically with the discovery of a dead body in the whirlpool bath. Despite a suspicious lack of cooperation from the local constabulary, Kincaid's keen sense of duty won't allow him to ignore the heinous crime, impelling him to send for his enthusiastic young assistant, Sergeant Gemma James. But the stakes are raised significantly when a second murder occurs, and Kincaid and James find themselves locked in a determined hunt for a fiendish felon looking for fresh blood....

©1993 Deborah Darden Crombie. All rights reserved. (P)2011 AudioGO

Time Share Murders

First in series, introducing us to Scotland Yard Superintendent Inspector Duncan Kincaid and his assistant Gemma James. Kincaid's brother gives him a week in a timeshare, a much needed vacation, which is cut short when Kincaid discovers the body of the assistant manager of the hotel, floating dead in the hot tub. The local constabulary is quick to try and quiet the buzz and put the death down to an accident . . . but to his dismay, Kincaid inserts himself into the investigation. All of the lodgers at the country villa are high class, concealing secrets . . . and Kincaid finds it difficult to break the ice with most of them . . . things are never quite what they seem . . . soon he is calling on his assistant, back at the Yard for help. In the beginning, I found the snooty visitors at the time share a bit much to deal with, but as time went on, I got hooked on the investigation and really began to like Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James. I think I will like the series. I appreciate the fact that its clean and not filled with needless profanity. The local police (inept to put it bluntly) were in over their head, and but for the help from Kincaid and James, would never have solved the case. Great story and great resolution!

A well written Cozie

I had not realized this was a cozie style mystery and am generally not a fan of such. Having said that, for a cozie it was surprisingly well written and engaging. I believe fans of cozies will enjoy this one.

Great start but fizzled out

The author had me interested for a while her characters quickly began to lose whatever charm they had been born with and became rather boring. The big mystery was in the end rather boring - even the main stars lost their light.

Time share

Okay book but it didn't grab me the characters didn't touch me in any significant way

3-1/2 stars

This book was enjoyable in a low-key, slow paced kind of way. The whole time I listened I kept thinking it would make a good BBC series. It was short enough to fit into an hour (maybe hour and a half show) and it reminded me of other British mystery series I have seen on TV. Not that that means it wasn't a good book; it was. It just wasn't very quickly paced. Not exactly a page-turner, at least not for me, but I still found myself enjoying my time listening to it. And I was actually surprised by the turn of events at the end, so kudos to Crombie for that. It's nicely narrated (though not stellar) and Kincaid and James have potential so I may try more in the series at some point.. We'll have to see.

Book Review

Not all that bad. The reading of the book was very enjoyable. The story was okay

Enjoyable

I'm not a mystery reader, so the plot lines were reasonably fresh and unique to me. I did find Kincaid rather clueless about women as potential romantic partners, not unusual by any means, but it would be interesting to get into his psyche about that. It would help flesh out his character.
The author's tendency to switch to first person narration for some, but not most, of the principal characters, is unsettling. I wish there was more of a commitment.

Good story.

I couldn't predict the ending which is always good. Excellent narrator, will look for more books by this author and narrator.

Ok story, less than ok writing

Overall the writing leaned heavily on trite phrases “he slammed his hand into his open palm”.

Unexpected

(As posted in Goodreads)
A couple of interesting and extremely relevant twists! The overall concept was completely invisible at first, but it was totally practical and believable. There were a couple of people whose consequences would have interested me, but I can see they really didn't relate to the story overall; I would love for her to write a subsequent book that addresses those people (I don't know, maybe she has -I haven't examined her other books in the series…). Overall, an interesting and satisfying mystery.