Deborah Crombie

Page Updated: 24/06/99

Deborah Crombie

Kissed a Sad Goodbye

09 Jul 99

Dreaming of the Bones

pbk 09 Jul 99

Mourn Not Your Dead

Leave the Grave Green

About the Author

Bibliography

First British Edition Macmillan (1999)

Kissed a Sad Goodbye
'The woman's halting voice had brought the memories flooding unexpectedly back - the sound the planes made as they came in for a bombing run, the sirens, the devastations afterwards…'
In the past ...
It is September, 1939, and thousands of children are being evacuated from London. Among them are two eleven-year-olds, Lewis Finch and William Hammond, who are billeted on the Surrey estate of the formidable Edwina Burne-Jones. Both become allies, then friends, and thus begins a story of choice and betrayal, with repercussions that will echo down the years...
In the present ...
Scotland Yard's Superintendent Duncan Kincaid and Sergeant Gemma James are called out to investigate a death on the Isle of Dogs. A beautiful young woman called Annabelle Hammond has been strangled, her body left lying in a local park. Kincaid's prime suspect is a busker she was seen talking to just before she disappeared. A busker with a strange connection to the past ...
Could it be that the fates of both victim and prime suspect were set in place more than fifty years before?
Praise for Deborah Crombie
All Shall be Well
'Written with compassion, clarity, wit and precision, this graceful mystery amply fulfils the promise of Crombie's debut novel, 'A Share in Death.' Publishers Weekly
'As a murder mystery devotee, I was delighted to be introduced to Deborah Crombie. All Shall Be Well is an entertaining read.' The Lady A Share in Death
'You'll enjoy some cosy bloodletting.' Daily Telegraph
'Deborah Crombie has a bright future ahead of her' Birmingham Post

Paperback - Pan (1999)

First British Edition Macmillan (1998)

Dreaming of the Bones
Dr Victoria McClellan, English Fellow at All Saint's College, Cambridge, is writing a biography of the talented but tortured poet Lydia Brooke, five years after Brooke's tragic suicide.
As a student at Cambridge in the early sixties, Lydia had become obsessed with her namesake, the Edwardian poet Rupert Brooke. Now Vic in turn has become immersed in Lydia's life and she finds it increasingly difficult to accept that the poet died by her own hand.
So, for the first time in eleven years, she calls her ex-husband, Superintendent Duncan Kincaid of Scotland Yard, to ask for his help in proving Lydia was murdered. At first Duncan fears that Vic has got too close to her enigmatic subject, that she simply does not want to believe that Lydia would take her own life.
But then he receives some terrible news that will change his life for ever…
In a beautifully crafted narrative that weaves between the present day, the era of the Edwardian Neo-Pagans and the scandalous sixties, Dreaming of the Bones is a poignant tale of deadly secrets and the loss of innocence.
'Her finest work.' Mostly Murder
'Crombie takes a giant leap forward in this haunting mystery. Her best book in an already accomplished series.' Publishers Weekly
'An atmospheric murder mystery that ranks among this year's very best offerings. You have a bountiful treat in store!' Mostly Murder
'Deborah Crombie is a first-rate thriller writer and Dreaming of the Bones is her best work yet.' Ms London

Paperback - Pan (1998)

Mourn Not Your Dead
Shortlisted for the Edgar Allan Poe Award and the Agatha Award
Superintendent Duncan Kincaid and Sergeant Gemma James are drawn into a case that: challenges both their investigative skills and their feelings for each other …
The murder at Holmbury St Mary was not one that Superintendent Duncan Kincaid of Scotland Yard would relish investigating. A man had been beaten to death in his own home. a man who just happened to be Commander Alastair Gilbert of the Metropolitan Police …
The only clues on offer are a few missing items from Claire Gilbert's jewellery collection and a string of local burglaries.
Did the senior policeman merely interrupt a thief at work? Or does the sleepy suburban village house someone with far more sinister, deadly motives ... ?

'Superintendent Kincaid unravels the various skeins to reveal a solution dazzling in its cunning... [an] estimable series.' The Scotsman
'Smooth procedural techniques and engagingly eccentric characters.' New York Times
'A highly enjoyable murder mystery... One for all detective fans' Caithness Courier

Leave the Grave Green
'On the opposite bank an old oak teetered precariously. Here Matthew's body lodged, pinned under the roots as if held by a giant hand …
Early one rain-soaked November morning, the body of Conner Swann - son-in-law of operatic conductor Sir Gerald Asherton and celebrated soprano Dame Caroline Stowe - is found floating in a Thames river lock.
Superintendent Duncan Kincaid and Sergeant Gemma James are quickly summoned from Scotland Yard, for the prints on the corpse's neck suggest the death was no accident …
But this is not the first tragedy to strike the Ashertons. Twenty years earlier their young son Matthew, a musical prodigy, had also died from drowning.
Could the seeds of Conner's murder have been planted all those years ago?
'A superbly-engrossing whodunnit.' Booklist
'Absorbing... works well on every level.' Mostly Murder

About The Author
Deborah Crombie has had a lifelong interest in English mysteries and her debut, A Share in Death, was published in 1993 to international critical acclaim. She grew up in Dallas, and has lived in Scotland and England, but now makes her home in north Texas with her husband, daughter and a varying menagerie.
Dreaming of the Bones, her fifth novel was published to much critical acclaim and shortlisted for the prestigious Edgar Allan Poe Award and the Agatha Award. She is currently at work on the seventh Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James mystery.

Bibliography
N.B. dates and publishers in dark red indicate British First Editions. Dates and publishers in black indicate recent reprints.

Kissed a Sad Goodbye (Macmillan, 1999) Jul 99 ( Kinkaid & James)

Dreaming of the Bones (Macmillan, 1998) Pan Pbk Jul 99 ( Kinkaid & James)

Mourn Not Your Dead (Macmillan, 1997) Pan Pbk Jan 98 ( Kinkaid & James)

Leave the Grave Green (Macmillan, 1996) ( Kinkaid & James)

All Shall Be Well (Macmillan, 1995) ( Kinkaid & James)

A Share in Death (Macmillan, 1993) ( Kinkaid & James)

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