Gerard Doyle is simply wonderful narrating Crombie’s exciting 18th outing with the crime-solving couple Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James. Doyle animates each of Crombie’s numerous characters with slight shifts in voice and tone. The Kincaid family is invited to a posh country estate in the Cotswolds. They’re looking forward to a relaxing getaway from their stressful Scotland Yard duties. Local chef Viv is catering a charity luncheon for foodies and food critics alike, the outcome of which could make or break her career. A fatal car crash, more mysterious deaths, secrets and motives going back decades, combined with Doyle’s impeccable performance, make this a mystery worth hearing. After A BITTER FEAST, start with Book One, A SHARE IN DEATH, for maximum enjoyment of this terrific series. S.J.H. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine
A Bitter Feast (Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James Series #18)
Narrated by Gerard Doyle
Deborah CrombieUnabridged — 10 hours, 42 minutes
A Bitter Feast (Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James Series #18)
Narrated by Gerard Doyle
Deborah CrombieUnabridged — 10 hours, 42 minutes
Audiobook (Digital)
Free with a B&N Audiobooks Subscription | Cancel Anytime
Already Subscribed?
Sign in to Your BN.com Account
Related collections and offers
FREE
with a B&N Audiobooks Subscription
Overview
""Crombie's Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James characters are rich, emotionally textured, fully human. They are the remarkable creations of a remarkable writer.""-Louise Penny
New York Times bestselling author Deborah Crombie returns with a mesmerizing entry in her “excellent” (Miami Herald) series, in which Scotland Yard detectives Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James are pulled into a dangerous web of secrets, lies, and murder buried beneath the surface of a picturesque Cotswolds village.
Scotland Yard Detective Superintendent Duncan Kincaid and his wife, Detective Inspector Gemma James, have been invited for a relaxing weekend in the tranquil Cotswolds, one of Britain's most beautiful and historic regions, famous for its rolling hills, sheep-strewn green meadows, golden cottages, and timeless villages that retain the spirit of old England.
Duncan, Gemma, and their children are guests at Beck House, the country estate belonging to the family of Melody Talbot, Gemma's trusted detective sergeant. No ordinary farmers, the Talbots are wealthy and prominent with ties to Britain's most powerful and influential. A centerpiece of this glorious fall getaway is a posh charity luncheon catered by up-and-coming chef Viv Holland. After more than a decade in London, Viv has returned to her native Glouscestershire, making a name for herself with her innovative, mouthwatering use of the local bounty. Attended by several dozen of the area's well-to-do, as well as national food bloggers and restaurant critics, the event could make Viv a star.
But a tragic car accident followed by a series of mysterious deaths could ruin her ascent. Each piece of information that surfaces makes it clear that the killer had a connection with Viv's pub-and perhaps with Beck House itself.
Does the truth lie in the past? Or is it more immediate, woven into the tangled relationships and bitter resentments swirling among the staff at Beck House and at Viv's pub? Or is it even more personal, entwined with secrets hidden by Viv, her business partner Bea Abbot, and Viv's eleven-year-old daughter Grace?
Further revelations rock the Talbots' estate and pull Duncan and Gemma and their colleagues into the investigation. With so much at stake both personally and professionally, especially for Melody Talbot, finding the killer becomes one of the team's most crucial cases.
A Bitter Feast is a thrilling addition to Deborah Crombie's series, featuring Scotland Yard detectives Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James as they investigate a series of mysterious deaths and secrets in a picturesque Cotswolds village, all while on a relaxing weekend vacation.
With intricate relationships and bitter resentments swirling among the staff at Beck House and at Viv's pub, the truth behind the murders becomes a crucial case for the team to solve.
HarperCollins 2024
Editorial Reviews
08/26/2019
In bestseller Crombie’s sturdy 18th novel featuring Det. Supt. Duncan Kincaid and Det. Insp. Gemma James (after 2017’s Garden of Lamentations), Det. Sgt. Melody Talbot invites Gemma, Duncan, their children, and Det. Sgt. Doug Cullen to spend a weekend in the Cotswolds, where her parents are hosting a charity luncheon catered by Viv Holland, a talented pub chef. The day the guests are to arrive, a car accident injures Duncan and kills the other driver. Another fatality is the other driver’s passenger, Viv’s former boss, celebrity chef Fergus O’Reilly, though an autopsy reveals that Fergus perished before the collision, from poison. Before the understaffed local PD can answer the myriad questions sparked by the crash, a hit-and-run kills yet another person with ties to Viv, prompting Gemma and company to join the investigation. Broadly drawn secondary characters erode the tale’s emotional underpinnings and the denouement strains credulity, but a strong sense of place and the core cast’s easy camaraderie provide ample distraction. Crombie fans and cozy aficionados will be well pleased. Author tour. Agent: Nancy Yost, Nancy Yost Literary. (Oct.)
We can always count on her for fabulous plots...But what puts Deborah Crombie among the greats is her sure hand in raising her characters off the page.” — Louise Penny, New York Times bestselling author
“Nobody writes the modern English mystery the way Deborah Crombie does—and A Bitter Feast is the latest in a series that is gripping, enthralling, and just plain the best.” — Charles Todd, New York Times bestselling author of The Black Ascot and A Cruel Deception
“A Bitter Feast is a rich banquet for mystery lovers. Three cheers for the chef, Deborah Crombie!” — Alan Bradley, New York Times bestselling author
"Deborah Crombie continues to push the envelope, writing books that are new, different and better and better. Richly layered, character-driven, and with an evocative sense of place, A Bitter Feast truly transcends the genre." — Rhys Bowen, New York Times bestselling author of the Royal Spyness series and the international bestseller The Tuscan Child
“It’s another stellar installment in the British mystery series that’s as much about characters as it is about crime.” — Parade
“This character-driven series just continues to get better.” — Booklist (starred review)
"To say that A Bitter Feast is a page-turner would be an understatement. Plan a full weekend of tea and scones because this one is not to be put down." — New York Journal of Books
“Crombie keeps this series on its toes with her smooth procedural techniques and engagingly eccentric characters.” — New York Times Book Review
"A Bitter Feast is a tour de force by Deborah Crombie." — CriminalElement.com
"Crombie fans and cozy aficionados will be well pleased." — Publishers Weekly
A Bitter Feast is a rich banquet for mystery lovers. Three cheers for the chef, Deborah Crombie!”
This character-driven series just continues to get better.
"To say that A Bitter Feast is a page-turner would be an understatement. Plan a full weekend of tea and scones because this one is not to be put down."
Crombie keeps this series on its toes with her smooth procedural techniques and engagingly eccentric characters.
It’s another stellar installment in the British mystery series that’s as much about characters as it is about crime.
We can always count on her for fabulous plots...But what puts Deborah Crombie among the greats is her sure hand in raising her characters off the page.
"Deborah Crombie continues to push the envelope, writing books that are new, different and better and better. Richly layered, character-driven, and with an evocative sense of place, A Bitter Feast truly transcends the genre."
"A Bitter Feast is a tour de force by Deborah Crombie."
Nobody writes the modern English mystery the way Deborah Crombie does—and A Bitter Feast is the latest in a series that is gripping, enthralling, and just plain the best.
Intricately layered.
Crombie, a three-time Macavity Award winner, an Edgar Award nominee, and a New York Times Notable author, stages another New Scotland Yard procedural here, with the team of Superintendent Duncan Kincaid and his partner through the series (now his wife), Inspector Gemma James.
Like a finely tuned Jaguar XJS, Deborah Crombie’s Scotland Yard mysteries have provided classy, reliable thrills.
Crombie is very talented at putting together a richly atmospheric whodunit....As a creator, she energetically inhabits the many strange worlds she shows her readers....
Crombie is very talented at putting together a richly atmospheric whodunit....As a creator, she energetically inhabits the many strange worlds she shows her readers....
Crombie, a three-time Macavity Award winner, an Edgar Award nominee, and a New York Times Notable author, stages another New Scotland Yard procedural here, with the team of Superintendent Duncan Kincaid and his partner through the series (now his wife), Inspector Gemma James.
This character-driven series just continues to get better.
Like a finely tuned Jaguar XJS, Deborah Crombie’s Scotland Yard mysteries have provided classy, reliable thrills.
Gerard Doyle is simply wonderful narrating Crombie’s exciting 18th outing with the crime-solving couple Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James. Doyle animates each of Crombie’s numerous characters with slight shifts in voice and tone. The Kincaid family is invited to a posh country estate in the Cotswolds. They’re looking forward to a relaxing getaway from their stressful Scotland Yard duties. Local chef Viv is catering a charity luncheon for foodies and food critics alike, the outcome of which could make or break her career. A fatal car crash, more mysterious deaths, secrets and motives going back decades, combined with Doyle’s impeccable performance, make this a mystery worth hearing. After A BITTER FEAST, start with Book One, A SHARE IN DEATH, for maximum enjoyment of this terrific series. S.J.H. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine
2019-07-15
A fatal accident that tangles the fates of three ill-assorted people when two cars crash into each other outside a Gloucester village raises urgent questions about the living.
Hours after being ejected from the Lamb, Viv Holland's pub in Lower Slaughter, her former boss Fergus O'Reilly, who's turned up without warning and pressed her to take a new job 12 years after she quit his Michelin-rated Chelsea restaurant, is found dead after a collision outside the village. Nor is he the only victim: Nell Greene, the Lamb patron who'd picked up Fergus when she saw him walking uncertainly along the road to drive him to the hospital, has also died at the scene. And there's evidence that Fergus was fatally poisoned even before the crash. The Met's Detective Superintendent Duncan Kincaid and his wife, DI Gemma James, are on hand to investigate because they've accepted an invitation to stay at Beck House, the home of DS Melody Talbot's wealthy parents, Sir Ivan and Lady Adelaide Talbot, for whom Viv has agreed to cater an elaborate charity luncheon. But Kincaid, who was driving the car Nell struck and survived the collision only to see Nell die as he looked on helplessly, isn't himself either physically or mentally, and the solution seems a long way off. There'll be another murder, a series of increasingly revealing flashbacks to Viv's stint at O'Reilly's 12 years ago, and endless updates on the sexual histories of the suspects with the victims, each other, and the police. Through it all, Kincaid and Gemma (Garden of Lamentations, 2017, etc.) keep stiff upper lips even when the dark revelations reach into Beck House.
Leisurely, conscientiously plotted, smoothly written, and more surprising in its details than its larger arc.
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940173125705 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | HarperCollins |
| Publication date: | 10/08/2019 |
| Series: | Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James Series , #18 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
Videos
