The Sound of Broken Glass

A barrister is found dead in a seedy hotel in Crystal Palace, under circumstances compromising enough to make the case immediately messy for the detectives assigned to it. Gemma James teams up with Melody Talbot to investigate, and what first looks like a sharp, contained murder inquiry quickly starts to widen. Beneath the dead man’s polished professional life lies a network of secrets, half-truths, and relationships that refuse to line up neatly.

At the same time, the novel reaches back into an earlier thread involving a lonely teenage boy and his widowed young neighbor, gradually revealing how past vulnerability and present violence may be connected. That dual structure gives The Sound of Broken Glass a broader emotional range than a straightforward police procedural. The mystery is not only about who killed the barrister, but about how private damage can linger for years before surfacing in a completely different form.

Set in South London’s Crystal Palace, the book leans into mood, memory, and the instability of appearances. Music, friendship, and hidden histories all matter here, and the suspense grows through slow revelation rather than spectacle. The result is a layered London mystery in which elegance, loneliness, and danger sit uncomfortably close together.

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