Books in the Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James series

A corpse, burned beyond recognition, has been uncovered in a vacant warehouse in Southwark . . . A young, beautiful hospital administrator has vanished without a trace, her past a mystery to even her closest friend . . . And across the City, within an old, dark, rambling house, a rigidly controlling, anonymous woman is holding ten-year-old Harriet hostage. While innocent lives hang in the balance, sinister truths unfurl and DS Duncan Kincaid and DI Gemma James must call upon all resources to work together on their most menacing case yet . . . 'Deborah Crombie just keeps getting better and better. In a Dark House is utterly compelling' PETER ROBINSON

Gemma, Duncan, and the boys are back in their Notting Hill house and enjoying a quiet spring in London when Gemma receives a plea for help from her friend and neighbor, Erika Rosenthal.Erika has never shared much of her past, other than telling Gemma that she and her husband came to London before the war as refugees from the emerging Nazi regime in Germany. Her husband was a historian and was found murdered in a local park. His death was never solved. Now Erika tells Gemma that a necklace from her past has come up for auction - a necklace which was taken from her. Now Erika asks Gemma to find out where the necklace came from.As Gemma works backwards, interviewing the staff at the auction house and looking into the records of David Rosenthal's death, her viewpoint is interwoven with Erika's vivid memories of her life as a young woman in London during and after the war. Then a young woman at the auction house is murdered and suddenly the case becomes very much centred in the present.

On a winter's evening in Notting Hill, Dawn Arrowood drives home after a doctor's appointment confirming her pregnancy. She is terrified. Her older husband has made it clear that he wants no children, and Dawn is not even sure that the child is his. But as Dawn arrives home, she is attacked as she gets out of her car. In the ensuing struggle, her assailant whispers in her ear 'I'm sorry'. And he cuts her throat. Gemma Jones and Duncan Kincaid are called to the crime scene. The gripping case that develops forces them to investigate 1960s Notting Hill and its racial tensions, the Russian mafia and a possible serial killer. . . And at the same time, Gemma, pregnant herself with Kincaid's child, has to cope with her own rollercoaster of emotions in a case that is rather too close to home for comfort.

Jack Montfort grew up in the shadow of Glastonbury Tor in a town revered as the mythical burial place of King Arthur, and, according to New Age followers, a source of strong druid power. Montfort has little more than a passing interest in the history of the area - until he comes across an extraordinary chronicle almost a thousand years old . . . The unsettling way this record comes into his hands brings Montfort into contact with a disparate group of townspeople, including Nick Carlisle, a student of Glastonbury's myths; Faith Wills, a pregnant teenage runaway; and Winnie Catesby, the Anglican priest who is now Jack's lover. When a member of Jack's circle is attacked and left for dead, he appeals to his cousin, Superintendent Duncan Kincaid, for help. For something terrible and bloody shattered Glastonbury Abbey's peace long ago - and now it is about to spark a violence that will reach forward into the present . . .

When Detective Inspector Gemma James is persuaded by her friend, Hazel, to take a trip to the misty Scottish Highlands, she jumps at the chance. But upon their arrival it becomes clear that Hazel has been concealing a dangerous secret. At their remote B&B the pair encounter Donald Brodie, the owner of a local distillery . . . and Hazel's former lover. Their relationship had ended abruptly years before. Now Donald is convinced he can win Hazel back. But the lovers' reunion yields shocking - and mortal - consequences. Gemma soon discovers that, in this tight-knit community, there is no shortage of murder suspects. And beneath the hospitable surface, there lurks a hundred years of bitter family rivalry waiting to emerge . . . 'As rich and history laden as a tartan plaid . . . this is a pure gem' Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Once the haunt of Jack the Ripper, London's East End is a vibrant mix of history and new ideas, but the trendy galleries of Brick Lane disguise a seedy underside where unthinkable crimes bring terror to the innocent.Artist and young mother Sandra Gilles disappears without trace after leaving her three-year-old daughter, Charlotte, with a friend at the Columbia Road Flower Market. Her lawyer husband, Naz Malik, is devastated - but he's also the prime suspect in a murder investigation. When Naz vanishes shortly afterwards, Gemma James and her partner Superintendent Duncan Kincaid agree to work together again to solve the case before the murderer can get his hands on the real prize, Charlotte.But just as the case grows more dangerous, a personal issue threatens to throw Gemma and Duncan off the trail. In the end, it is up to them to stop a vicious killer and protect the child whose fate hangs in the balance.

Olympic rowing hopeful and senior Metropolitan Police officer DCI Rebecca Meredith goes out alone to train on the river in Henley on a dark afternoon in late October - and doesn't return. When a desperate search by the police and a K9 team reveals the possibility of foul play, Scotland Yard wants one of their own on the case. Detective Superintendent Duncan Kincaid, returning from celebrating his marriage to long-time partner Detective Inspector Gemma James, is called to Henley to investigate. He soon finds that the world of elite rowing can be brutal, and that Rebecca Meredith's ex-husband was not the only person with good reason for wanting her dead. Then, when a search-and-rescue team member is threatened, Kincaid realizes the case may be even more complex and more dangerous than he believed. But it is only when he enlists Gemma's aid that they find that the answers lie closer to home than they could have imagined - and are infinitely more deadly. It seems that more than one innocent life depends on their ability to track down the killer.