Book & Baking Blog Entry 11

Back to murder.

REMINDER: THERE MAY BE UNINTENTIONAL SPOILERS (especially since I'm discussing the first 6 of a series...)

First, have I mentioned my love of the audiobook? I am an audiobook fan from the time we called them "books on tape." I had my first in the early '90s. Yes. I'm old and I prefer books to music, scandalous. I used to spend a lot of time traveling for work. I love listening to a book and driving. Now that I have an iPod I use audible. I can't recommend it enough. You can buy books a la carte or you can buy a subscription. I have "read" 228 books via my iPods (I had to replace a broken one) since 2005. I am dedicated.

I've been reading a series of British murder mysteries by Deborah Crombie. I really like them. They are great if you don't want a lot of gore and enjoy a bit of personal story without it being all about the relationship. Duncan Kincaid and Jemma James are our hero/heroine cops. They begin as colleagues and end up as a couple. This is not a love/hate fight fight fight relationship. I like that it develops naturally with some angst over professional concerns but not too much. There is a nice blend of the actual murder plot with the relatioship. These are nice people, with normal relatioships, normal issues working together.

Another plus with this book is that there aren't sex scenes. At least none that come to mind, and I probably would remember. I don't care to listen to sex scenes. When actually reading I skip those pages. Yes. I do. And listening is even worse. It's a bit creepy and voyeuristic.

I've read:

Necessary as Blood
Kissed a Sad Goodbye
Dreaming of the Bones
A Finer End
Leave the Grave Green
Mourn Not Your Dead

For those who really like to read a series in order, I didn't. It didn't make a huge difference to me as any good writer can give you the information you need about the past relationship without spoiling earlier books.

My biggest criticism of Crombie is that the story does sometimes lag a bit. Not so much that I didn't read 6 of her novels, but this might be a better read in print for that reason.

Maybe next blog I'll discuss when I buy an audiobook vs a print (Kindle) edition. It's quite important. Also coming: my next cake!

Happy Murder & Good reading.