Scotland Yard's Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James face their most haunting case yet when the past devastatingly intersects with the present....
The call from Scotland Yard couldn't have come at a worse time for Detective Superintendent Duncan Kincaid. He has promised the weekend to Kit, the eleven-year-old son of his ex-wife. The son he never knew he fathered who doesn't yet know Kincaid's true identity.
But Duncan's best intentions are shattered by an investigation that draws him in and swiftly consumes him. It seems to begin with the discovery of the body of a beautiful young woman in an East London park. But Kincaid and Sergeant Gemma James will discover that this case has long roots that reach far back into the past, and that resentments which should have been decades buried still have the power to hurt and maybe even the capacity to kill.
From the Publisher
"Atmospheric ... absorbing ... haunting."
The Washington Post Book World"[Crombie] is writing in P.D. James territory, and she is a master."
Associated Press
"Crombie never stumbles as she maneuvers her way through her complicated plot as skillfully as she handles the ongoing romance between her two detectives. The result is an Anglophile's delight."
The Sunday Denver Post
"Deborah Crombie is an American mystery novelist who writes so vividly about England, she might have been born within the sound of Bow bells. [She] gets better with each book ... lyrical, biting, and evocative."
The Plain Dealer, Cleveland
Also by Deborah Crombie:
Dreaming of the Bones
And coming soon in hardcover from Bantam Books:
A Finer End
New York Times Book Review
The insular world of London's Docklands is less a picturesque backdrop than a living presence...
Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly
Scotland Yard detectives Sergeant Gemma James and Superintendent Duncan Kincaid (Dreaming of the Bones, etc.) return to solve a murder committed in the East End of London. On the Isle of Dogs in the Docklands area, a young woman is found dead. Oddly, her corpse has been carefully, even reverently, arranged. The stunningly beautiful victim, Annabelle Hammond, is the director of a family-owned tea company that is headquartered in a historic building nearby. Operating on the premise that Annabelle probably knew her killer, Duncan and Gemma poke around in the victim's past, meanwhile working through problems in their own lives. Duncan has recently learned that his ex-wife (who died in Dreaming of the Bones) left behind an 11-year-old son; now he is discovering how much time and emotion are needed to bring up a child. As previously, Crombie delineates expertly the interactions between lovers Duncan and Gemma, as their relationship continues to evolve. Most notable, though, is her masterful depiction of the history and character of the Docklands: the Isle of Dogs, and its historic cycle of destruction and renewal, provides a strong, atmospheric background to the tale, as the contemporary story is interspersed with accounts of the evacuation of local children (including Annabelle's father) during the bombings of WWII. Although not as emotionally intense as its Edgar-nominated predecessor, this complex, thoughtful novel is another satisfying entry in an exceptional series. Agent, Nancy Yost.
Library Journal
The murder of a beautiful businesswoman in London's Isle of Dogs neighborhood calls both local police and Scotland Yard into play. The Yard's Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James (Dreaming of the Bones, Scribner, 1997) create a psychological profile of the victim and thoroughly investigate the thriving family tea concern. Her long-time friend and (estranged) fianc , a local land developer, and a panhandling (but well-born) clarinetist are high on the list of suspects. Crombie provides a most satisfactory police procedural here, with full-blown characterization, a deceptively simple story line, and gripping human-interest subplots. Highly recommended. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 1/99.]
School Library Journal
YA-In the sixth Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James mystery, Scotland Yard DS (detective superintendent) Kincaid is knee-deep in personal turmoil when he is notified about the murder of a young unidentified woman. He is trying to spend time with 11-year-old Kit, the grieving son of his recently deceased ex-wife while he determines how to tell the boy that he is his father. The intricacies of this case, however, draw him away from that endeavor and put him and Sergeant James in the company of a complex cast of characters. The murder victim turns out to be Annabelle Hammond, the daughter of rich and powerful William Hammond, the sister of Jo Lowell (whose marriage Annabelle broke up after having an affair with Jo's husband), and the lover of two other men. Hence, there is no shortage of suspects. The clues to the intriguing mystery present themselves as the layers of the story are revealed, much like peeling an onion. Scenes of East London's Isle of Dogs are vividly described. Readers learn about the forced evacuation of children from London during World War II as well as the privations and devastation suffered by England, and especially London, during the war. Young adult mystery fans will easily get caught up in the characters, the settings, and the case itself.-Carol DeAngelo, Kings Park Library, Burke, VA Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.
NY Times Book Review
The insular world of London's Docklands is less a picturesque backdrop than a living presence...
Island Magazine
In Deborah Crombie's Kissed a Sad Goodbye the secret is the past life of the victim, glamorous entrepreneur An- nabelle Hammond, whose body is discovered in a park on the Isle of Dogs, once the heart of London's Dockland district. As Detective Superintendent Duncan Kincaid and Sergeant Gemma James discover, Annabelle brought out extremes in all who knew her, but the real reason for her murder goes back to World War II, when Dockland was virtually destroyed by German bombers. Crombie's tale is particularly strong in its evocation of this very special corner of London.
Kirkus Reviews
Scotland Yard's Detective Superintendent Duncan Kincaid (Mourn Not Your Dead, 1996, etc.), whose London turf includes the Past Docklands, is called back to work from a weekend with the 11-year-old Kit, his dead ex-wife's son, supposedly by her second husband, though Kincaid is sure he himself is the boy's father. A young woman has been found strangled in Mudchute Park. Soon identified as the victim is Annabelle Hammondthe clever, beautiful daughter of William Hammond, head of Hammond Fine Teas, which occupies a warehouse on the docks much coveted by builder Lewis Finch. Annabelle practically ran the business, with help from secretary Teresa Robbins, but it's in her promiscuous love life that Kincaid is looking for clues to her killer. Annabelle's affair with her sister Jo's husband, Martin Cowell, had killed that marriage; her liaison with Lewis Finch is no secret; neither is her affair with Lewis's son Gordon, an impoverished street musician. Not only that, but her death was preceded by a quarrel with Reg Mortimer, Annabelle's official fiancé of several years and a prime suspectat least until Kincaid begins to explore the wartime experience shared by Lewis Finch and William Hammond. The bizarre happenings of those long-ago days, when Finch and Hammond were evacuated from bombed London to the country house of Edwina Bourne-Jones, a patrician but loving benefactress, hold the key to Annabelle's murder and to the suicide that followed.
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