Deborah Crombie

Dreaming of the Bones

Deborah Crombie

• 1998 Macavity-Novel winner
• 1998 Barry-Novel nominee
• 1998 Edgar–Novel nominee
• 1997 Agatha–Novel nominee
• Score: 28.48

After twelve years, the last person Scotland Yard Superintendent Duncan Kincaid expects to hear from is his ex-wife Victoria. But this is no social call. In her biographical research on troubled poet Lydia Brooke, Vic’s uncovered reasons to believe Lydia’s death five years ago was not suicide.

Much to Kincaid’s surprise—and the unease of his partner and lover, Sergeant Gemma James—he finds he can’t refuse Vic’s request to look into the long-closed case. The police report raises questions, but not enough to reopen the investigation—until a second death occurs, this one clearly murder.

Now Duncan and Gemma must sift through a tangle of relationships, secrets, and lies to find not just a killer, but a secret which will change their own lives forever.

Where Memories Lie

Deborah Crombie

• 2009 Macavity-Novel winner
• Score: 10.59

A lifetime ago, Erika Rosenthal and her late husband, David, fled to England to escape the Nazis—which is all Scotland Yard Detective Inspector Gemma James truly knows about her secretive friend’s past. But Erika needs Gemma’s help now. A family heirloom, stolen during their flight, is being sold at a prestigious London auction house. Who has had it all these years? And was Erika’s husband’s death more sinister than it appeared?

Hidden somewhere in the shadowy, exclusive world of London’s monied society are answers to these questions, and to a shocking new murder—one which kicks the enquiries into high gear and brings Detective Superintendent Duncan Kincaid, Gemma’s partner and colleague, into the case. Their investigation could exact justice for Erika, and lead them both to shocking revelations and repercussions that echo across the years.

Water Like a Stone: A Kincaid and James Mystery

Deborah Crombie

• 2008 Macavity-Novel nominee
• Score: 6.58

Detective Superintendent Duncan Kincaid and his partner, Sergeant Gemma James, take their sons to picturesque Cheshire for their first family Christmas with Duncan’s parents—a holiday both dreaded and anticipated. But not even the charming town of Nantwich and the dreaming canals can mask the tensions in Duncan’s family, which are tragically heightened by the discovery of an infant’s body hidden in the wall of an old dairy.

As Duncan and Gemma help the police investigate the infant’s death, another murder strikes closer to home, revealing that far from being idyllic, Duncan’s childhood paradise holds dark and deadly secrets…secrets that threaten everything and everyone Duncan and Gemma hold most dear.

A Share in Death: A Kincaid and James Mystery

Deborah Crombie

• 1993 Agatha–1st Novel nominee
• Score: 6.43

A week’s holiday in a luxurious Yorkshire time-share is just what Scotland Yard’s Superintendent Duncan Kincaid needs. But the discovery of a body floating in the whirlpool bath ends Kincaid’s vacation before it’s begun. One of his new acquaintances at Followdale House is dead; another is a killer. Despite a distinct 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 dramatically when a second murder occurs, and Kincaid and James find themselves in a determined hunt for a fiendish felon who enjoys homicide a bit too much.