I Love the Sound of Breaking Glass

I Love the Sound of Breaking Glass (1997) introduces Christy Kennedy, the Irish-born Detective Inspector of Camden CID in North London, England. Kennedy's girl friend ann rea, a journalist who has adopted the k.d. lang/ee cummings name spelling style, asks him to look into the disappearance of a record producer who eventually turns up dead. Rock promoter Charles knows the music industry inside out, and presents a convincing and complex picture of corrupt schemes and cutthroat deals. Musical quotes from a wide variety of artists introduce each chapter; the title is from a Nick Lowe song. Kennedy is a humane and likable protagonist, always on the search for his next cup of tea. A combination of police procedural and classic whodunit, this clever novel will appeal to traditional mystery fans, especially those who enjoy Lovesey's Peter Diamond books. http://www.stopyourekillingme.com/C_Authors/Charles_Paul.html

Hearing fire trucks in his neighborhood, Detective Inspector Christy Kennedy goes to look and sees that the home of Peter O'Brien, founder of Camden Tour Records, has burned to the ground. He later learns arson caused the blaze as someone placed an incendiary device inside a cassette holder. A few days later Kennedy's girlfriend reporter ann rea tells him that Peter has not been to his office for a few days nor called in, and this is very uncharacteristic of him. Kennedy learns from Peter's secretary Mary that her boss was being blackmailed for record hyping. A paper trail shows that Peter's Access card was used on the train and at a restaurant. He also left a message to Mary claiming he is okay and will be in touch. Soon afterward, Peter's corpse is found in his Mayfair Mews Studio. The coroner claims he died twelve hours ago although he vanished five days ago. Christy finds that the victim had numerous enemies with varying motives, but which one would kill remains the question. The protagonist makes I LOVE THE SOUND OF BROKEN GLASS a cut above the usual British police procedural as Christy empathizes with those he questions even those he considers a prime suspect. He understands that his inquiry could destroy the lives of innocent people by opening unrelated skeletons best left buried, but still does the job he is expected to do. The love between Christy and ann rea adds a humanizing element to the hero. This classy mystery will appeal to sub-genre fans for sure, but readers who welcome a strong well written tale will appreciate Paul Charles' fine novel. Harriet Klausner

Solid, ok plot, ok characters, which I hope develop more in later works. I agree fully with the other reviewer. The author writes solidly- short, to the point-, not really well like a PD James or other literary style writer, but it's ok for a procedural. The only odd thing about this book is that it seems to have been originally written in the 1980s -everyone is dressed in 1980's clothes, such as suits with vests, track suits, etc. Most people are still using cassettes, and the references to Hill Street Blues and other 1980's pop culture are only offset by occasional disconcerting references to 1990's music, culture and CDs. This does not really work. If it was originally set in the 1980's it probably should have been left there.

This is a pretty solid debut police procedural with both feet firmly set in the Camden Town area of London. Much like John Havey's Charley Resnick series, the reader follows the professional and personal travails of D.I. Christy Kennedy as he solves a few murders and feels his way though a relationship. Kennedy is decidedly less troubled and dark than Resnick, however. The central case is the murder of the head of a local independent record label who has recently sold out to a major for big money. There's some sort of music insider stuff mixed in, but none of it particularly enthralling in and of itself. It's more fun to watch Kennedy trawl the past and present of the Irish promoter to track down the killer. It moves pretty smoothly, although it'd be nice if Charles managed to make his chapters a tad bit longer (60 chapters over 240 pages = 4 page chapters!), as all the breaks get rather intrusive. His love of music gets the better of him with the rather silly inclusion of song lyrics at the beginning of each chapter (the book's title is that of a Nick Lowe song). These minor annoyances and few bits of a sloppy prose aside, it's a good beginning and I'll definitely look for the next in the series.