Superintendent Duncan Kincaid is called to investigate the shocking death of a woman found burned beyond recognition in a Victorian warehouse in south London. When his lover and partner, Gemma James, is asked to trace a friend's missing roommate, she and Duncan discover that their cases have several disturbing links.Set against a backdrop of Dickensian Southwark, repository of old secrets, the case plunges Duncan and Gemma into the dark recesses of human relationships. Two women ar...

Perhaps it is a blessing when Jasmine Dent dies in her sleep—at last an end has come to the suffering of a body horribly ravaged by disease. It may well have been suicide; she had certainly expressed her willingness to speed the inevitable. But small inconsistencies lead her neighbor, Superintendent Duncan Kincaid, to a startling conclusion: Dent was murdered. But if not for mercy, why would someone destroy a life already doomed?As Kincaid and his appealing assistant Sergeant Gemma...

A crime of passion strikes close to home when Gemma and her best friend, Hazel Cavendish, travel to Scotland, a land of mists and fine whiskey, of hidden pasts and dangerous secrets, or so Gemma discovers when an unexpected meeting with Hazel's old flame yields shocking—and mortal—consequences.Hazel is the logical suspect, but Gemma knows nothing is simple in this place of secrets and long-seething hatreds. As even more damning evidence piles up against the friend Gemma never truly...

When Scotland Yard superintendent Duncan Kincaid takes Gemma, Kit, and Toby for a holiday visit to his family in Cheshire, Gemma is soon entranced with Nantwich’s pretty buildings and the historic winding canal, and young Kit is instantly smitten with his cousin Lally.But their visit is marred by family tensions exacerbated by the unraveling of Duncan’s sister Juliet’s marriage. And tensions are brought to the breaking point on Christmas Eve with Juliet’s discovery of a mummified i...

A week’s holiday in a luxurious hotel is just what Scotland Yard’s Superintendent Duncan Kincaid needs. But his vacation ends dramatically with the discovery of a dead body in the whirlpool bath.Despite a suspicious lack of cooperation from the local constabulary, Kincaid’s keen sense of duty won’t allow him to ignore the heinous crime, impelling him to send for his enthusiastic young assistant, Sergeant Gemma James. But the stakes are raised significantly when a second murder occu...

Scotland Yard Superintendent Duncan Kincaid and Sergeant Gemma James are sent to suburban Surrey to investigate the murder of a high-ranking police officer. Alastair Gilbert was bludgeoned to death in his kitchen, and the list of potential suspects is long. The man's arrogance earned him widespread enmity both in the village where he lived and in police circles. But Duncan and Gemma must put aside their personal feelings—for the victim, as well as for each other—to solve the most troubling...

When a body is discovered floating in a Thames river lock one dreary morning, Superintendent Duncan Kincaid and Sergeant Gemma James are summoned from Scotland Yard to Chiltern Hills. The dead man is Connor Swann, son-in-law of two of London’s most renowned opera personalities. And prints on the corpse’s neck suggest that Swann was strangled. As Duncan and Gemma explore the quiet woods above the Thames and the flamboyant world of London opera in search of answers, they discover a tangled w...

Gemma James is adjusting to professional and personal changes—and a future now intricately entwined with Duncan Kincaid. But her new responsibilities are put to the test when she is placed in charge of a particularly brutal homicide: The lovely young wife of a wealthy antiques dealer has been found murdered on fashionable Notting Hill.The main focus of Gemma’s investigation is Karl Arrowood, who had the most powerful motive for killing his unfaithful wife. But this case sets off wa...

New York Times bestselling author Deborah Crombie makes her mark with this absorbing, finely hued tale of suspense—a deeply atmospheric and twisting mystery full of deadly secrets, salacious lies, and unexpected betrayals involving the mysterious drowning of a Met detective—an accomplished rower—on the Thames.When a K9 search-and-rescue team discovers a woman's body tangled up with debris in the river, Scotland Yard superintendent Duncan Kincaid finds himself heading an in...

In the tradition of Elizabeth George, Louise Penny, and P. D. James, New York Times bestselling author Deborah Crombie delivers a powerful tale of intrigue, betrayal, and lies that will plunge married London detectives Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James into the unspeakable darkness that lies at the heart of murder.Recently transferred to the London borough of Camden from Scotland Yard headquarters, Superintendent Duncan Kincaid and his new murder investigation team are called...

In the past . . .On a blisteringly hot August afternoon in Crystal Palace, once home to the tragically destroyed Great Exhibition, a solitary thirteen-year-old boy meets his next-door neighbor, a recently widowed young teacher hoping to make a new start in the tight-knit South London community. Drawn together by loneliness, the unlikely pair forms a deep connection that ends in a shattering act of betrayal.In the present . . .On a cold January morning in London, Det...

Scotland Yard detectives Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James are drawn into separate investigations that hold disturbing—and deadly—complications for their own lives in this powerful mystery in the bestselling series.On a beautiful morning in mid-May, the body of a young woman is found in one of Notting Hill’s private gardens. To passersby, the pretty girl in the white dress looks as if she’s sleeping. But Reagan Keating has been murdered, and the lead detective, DI Kerry Boatman, turns...