Product Description

Scotland Yard detectives Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James return in a chilling and suspenseful tale of murder, kidnapping, madness, and the frightening ordeal of a helpless child, the latest masterwork of crime fiction from New York Times Notable Book of the Year author Deborah Crombie ...

An abandoned warehouse burns next door to a women's shelter for victims of spousal abuse, an apparent case of arson. But it is the charred corpse within -- a female body burned beyond all recognition -- combined with the political sensitivity of the case, that entangles Superintendent Duncan Kincaid in its twisted skein.

At the same time, Kincaid's lover and former partner, Gemma James, is coping with twin crises of her own, one personal and the other professional. Gemma must put her private concerns aside to investigate the disappearance of a hospital administrator, a beautiful, emotionally fragile young woman who vanished without a trace. Yet neither Gemma nor Kincaid realizes how closely their cases are connected -- or how important the resolutions will be for a young child who was a victim of parental abduction.

In an old, dark, rambling house, nine-year-old Harriet worries about her feuding mum and dad, her friends, her schoolwork. Most of all, she worries about the strange woman who is her only companion in this scary, unfamiliar place. The events that led her there happened too quickly and are too complicated for a child to fully comprehend. But despite her youth and innocence, Harriet's awful fears will not be silenced: that she may never see her parents again ... and that her own life is in serious peril.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #614734 in Books
• Published on: 2004-10-01
• Released on: 2004-10-12
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 400 pages

From Publishers Weekly
A serial arsonist nutter is on the loose in London in Crombie's assured 10th book starring Scotland Yard Det. Supt. Duncan Kincaid and his lover/partner Det. Insp. Gemma James. When a nude, charred female corpse turns up in a burned warehouse, the police discover that the unidentified victim, one of four possible women, was murdered beforehand. Duncan and Gemma also look into the abduction of 10-year-old Harriet Novak, a pawn in her parents' ongoing acrimonious divorce. As the investigation by both fire officials and police evolves, it becomes clear that the abduction is connected to the murder. Young, eager firefighter Rose Kearny, who found the body in the burning building, works the case on her own and comes up with a theory that may explain the arsonist's unusual motive. Fanny Liu, confined to a wheelchair, fears the worst when her roommate goes missing, and a nearby home for battered women apparently connects several aspects of the case. It's a web of gossamer-thin clues that police, under the patient Superintendent Kincaid, work to untangle as they race against time to find the imperiled Harriet. Myriad subplots that have accrued from past entries slow the action in places, but Duncan and Gemma are such interesting and attractive characters that few readers will mind.
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Review
"...interesting and attractive characters..." -- Publishers Weekly

"An uncanny affinity for the English detective genre...Her characters are three-dimensional and are drawn with compassion and sensitivity." -- Dallas Morning News

"As always, Ms. Crombie peoples her novel with well-drawn, interesting characters. -- Richmond Times-Dispatch

In this dark house, the author’s light shines brightly. -- Richmond Times-Dispatch

Review
Crombie's steady hand drives teh story--and the likable Kincaid and james--safely home again. (Texas Monthly )

"As always, Ms. Crombie peoples her novel with well-drawn, interesting characters. (Richmond Times-Dispatch )

In this dark house, the author's light shines brightly. (Richmond Times-Dispatch on In a Dark House )

"A master of the modern British mystery...one writer who gets better with every book." (Harrisburg Patriot News )

"Rich and complex." (London Times )

"An uncanny affinity for the English detective genre...Her characters are three-dimensional and are drawn with compassion and sensitivity." (Dallas Morning News )

"Crombie has laid claim to the literary territory of moody psychological suspense owned by P.D. James and Barbara Vine." (Washington Post )

"...interesting and attractive characters..." (Publishers Weekly )

"Crombie...has evolved into a masterful novelist." (Denver Post )

"A defiinite recomendation for fans of Elizabeth george, P.D. James and Ruth Rendell." (Library Journal )

"Crombie keeps this series on its toes with her smooth procedural techniques and engagingly eccentric characters." (New York Times Book Review )

Customer Reviews

Great setting, engaging characters, many mysteries
Deborah Crombie succeeds on at least three levels in the continuation of the Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James series.

First, she skillfully develops the historic and contemporary meaning of Southwark, where the story is set. Architectural details, anomalies of language, and anecdotes of days gone by provide a rich and believeable backdrop. Yet the setting informs, rather than overwhelms, the story: no risk of drowning in meaningless detail.

Second, the plot nests several mysteries without requiring all the characters to run into each other. Though nuanced, the questions at the story's center differentiate themselves sufficiently to make the reader follow closely the final pages. It would be hard not to care about how each problem resolves and Crombie conscientiously wraps up each of the plots.

The primary reason to care so much about the plots is that the characters, both familiar and those making one-time appearances in the series, show rich diversity in character and within characterizations. About the few characters who lack depth, the reader is likely to think simply that -- well, they lack depth. It is true in life, so why not in fiction? But most of the personalities show the range of how well and how poorly people respond to difficulty. Their interactions are anything but predictable.

When I pick up a book by this author, I always mean to make it last because I savor the tensions between characters, being immersed in the sights and sounds and smells of a foreign place, and the lovely economy of language in dialog and description, alike. And Deborah Crombie does not shirk from putting out a multi-course feast for the mystery reader. The problem, though, is that the stories she creates invariably drive me into turning pages. I tend to finish her books quickly because my curiosity drives me on, even as I want the story to last longer and longer.

A tiny criticism: a personal subplot has strung out over several books. It seems artificial that it remains unresolved. But that's a fly in the neighborhood -- hardly a fly even near the soup of this exciting and interesting book.

This book is superb -- the best Crombie yet
The literary merit of this mystery is very high -- as good if not better as anything P.D. James or Elizabeth George has written. Several plots intertwine deftly in a rather complex (but not so complex you have trouble following it) plot. I listened to the CD version, read beautifully, and that forced me to hear the story in a measured pace rather than rushing through the book to find out what happened next. The temptation will be to hurry through this book to find out what happens, but it's a book worth savoring.

The plots involve several missing women -- including a child -- and an unidentified body of a woman found in a burned out warehouse. In addition to Gemma James and Duncan Kincaid, who both get involved in this although they are working in separate offices of Scotland Yard, a new "detective" character is added -- a young firefighter named Rose whose interest is in arson investigation. She suspects that this seemingly natural fire is anything but.

My only criticism has to do with my impatience with the subplot involving Kit -- I'm tiring of it and wish the author would resolve this family problem, which apparently interests her more than it does me.

But on the whole, I think this is a book you may want to keep and suspect it will be winning some awards.

Arson and murder
This is a really fine murder mystery in the English style. DS Duncan Kincaid is called in to represent Scotland Yard in a murder/arson investigation of the burning of a warehouse owned by a prominent MP. It's an investigation that he could well do without at this minute as he is concerned about a hearing affecting the custody of his son. His partner and lover, DI. Gemma James, is not prepared to commit to marriage, even though the even tenor of their lives with their joined families is in jeopardy. After the charred body of a female is discovered in the aftermath of the warehouse fire, patient and detailed police work unravels the identity of the victim who is linked to the murder and disappearance of several women from the same district. Dr. Tony Kovak arranges for a casual friend to help kidnap his 10 year old daughter so as to prevent her mother from stopping custody arrangements, but doesn't bargain for his daughters' total disappearance. Yet another woman can't be located and is found murdered. It's a gripping, methodical plot and one which I would recommend to every reader who enjoys this style of mystery.