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. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


From AudioFile
Michael Deehy delivers an outstanding, nuanced reading of the most recent in Crombie's popular police procedural series about Superintendent Duncan Kincaid and Detective Inspector Gemma James, of Scotland Yard. In this one, they cope with serial arson, missing women, spousal abuse, murder and gambling, while handling their own social and familial relationships. The individual threads are woven together expertly to form a rich and coherent whole. It's a whole made even better by Deehy, who creates distinctive, revealing voices for the characters and reads with beautiful pacing. In a burning building with fire-fighters, for example, we hear their fear and their self-control without being aware of Deehy the narrator. This is a superb performance from start to finish. R.E.K. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine


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


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


Richmond Times-Dispatch
"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.


Book 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.


About the Author
Deborah Crombie was born and educated in Texas and has lived in both England and Scotland. Her Kincaid and James novels have received Edgar, Agatha, and Macavity Award nominations, and her fifth novel, Dreaming of the Bones, was named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and was selected as one of the 100 Best Crime Novels of the Century by the Independent Mystery Booksellers of America. Her novels have been published in Japan, Germany, Italy, Norway, the Netherlands, France, the Czech Republic, and the United Kingdom. Ms. Crombie travels to England several times a year and has been a featured speaker at St. Hilda's College, Oxford. She lives in a small North Texas town, sharing a turn-of-the-century house with her husband, three cats, and a German shepherd dog.

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
Deborah Crombie is building a reputation for creating powerful and dramatic mysteries. Her protagonists, Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James, have more in common than the home and love they share, they're also both Scotland Yard detectives.

In a Dark House puts Gemma and Duncan's multilayered relationship to the test, as these two gifted investigators find themselves working a brutal and complex case from differing perspectives. It starts simply￯﾿ﾽSuperintendent Kincaid is called in to "help" when a member of Parliament's venture into real estate goes up in smoke. At first Duncan expects that his role will be limited to keeping the politician's involvement out of the limelight. But the discovery of the body of a nude young woman at the fire scene guarantees he'll soon be doing more than damage control.

Gemma comes to the case through unofficial channels, when her offer to help a friend whose lodger has vanished reveals unmistakable signs of a double life. When the M.P.'s wayward daughter disappears, Gemma and Duncan discover disturbing evidence linking that to another missing-persons case -- one where an angry father, desperate to remove his daughter from his ex-wife's care, entrusted his little girl to a virtual stranger, only to have both the woman and child disappear without a trace. Carefully, patiently, Duncan and Gemma tease out the connections between the brutalized corpse, the missing women, the kidnapped girl￯﾿ﾽand a series of suspicious fires that suggest a pattern of accelerating danger. Sue Stone

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"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.

FROM THE CRITICS

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. Agent, Nancy Yost. (Oct. 12) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Favorite Scotland Yard detectives Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James are saving damsels in distress in this latest by the author of Dreaming of Bones, a 1997 New York Times Book of the Year. Crombie lives in a small North Texas town. Six-city author tour. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

AudioFile