The Sound Of Breaking Glass by Deborah Crombie

In this fifteenth novel about London detectives Gemma and Duncan Kincaid, the couple's lives have changed.  They are foster parents now to three year old Charlotte and Duncan has taken leave from work to stay at home with her.  Gemma has gotten a promotion and is eager to show her expertise in her first assigned case.

Someone is killing barristers.  Two men have been found killed, each bound naked and strangled.  There seems to be little that connects the men.  Victor Arnott was an older man, sixtyish, powerful and at the top of his career.  He made a habit of picking up women in bars and taking them to a seedy hotel nearby.  Shaun Francis was a young barrister just starting out and feeling his way in his profession.  There seems to be no connection between the two men except that no one seemed to like them much, and they both lived in the same part of town, near the Crystal Palace of historical importance.

As Gemma delves into their lives, connections start to appear.  Both seemed to have been involved with a young guitarist who is about to make a breakthrough in his career.  Andy also comes from the neighborhood and has connections with both men.  Could he be involved?  Gemma's new detective sergeant, Melody Talbot, hopes that this is not so, as she has felt an instant connection with Andy.  Andy's manager is a man both Gemma and Duncan know.  Should Gemma continue to work the case when she and her team have personal connections to the participants?  If she does, can they solve the case before more men are killed?

Fans of Deborah Crumbie's Kincaid series will welcome this new chapter in the series.  Crumbie mixes the details of a police investigation with just enough information about the personal lives of the police investigating it to draw the reader in and make them feel as if they are revisiting old friends.  The story is satisfactorily complex and the personal relationships move the plot along as the line between work and home responsibilities is finely drawn.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.