TO DWELL IN DARKNESS: A REVIEW AND GIVEAWAY

GIVEAWAY ENDED
TO DWELL IN DARKNESS
 BY DEBORAH CROMBIE
  

ABOUT THE BOOK:

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 to a deadly bombing at historic St. Pancras Station. By fortunate coincidence, Melody Talbot, Gemma's trusted colleague, witnesses the explosion. The victim was taking part in an organized protest, yet the other group members swear the young man only meant to set off a smoke bomb. As Kincaid begins to gather the facts, he finds every piece of the puzzle yields an unexpected pattern, including the disappearance of a mysterious bystander.

The bombing isn't the only mystery troubling Kincaid. He's still questioning the reasons behind his transfer, and when his former boss—who's been avoiding him—is attacked, those suspicions deepen. With the help of his former sergeant, Doug Cullen, Melody Talbot, and Gemma, Kincaid begins to untangle the truth. But what he discovers will leave him questioning his belief in the job that has shaped his life and his values—and remind him just how vulnerable his precious family is.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Deborah Crombie was born in Dallas and grew up in Richardson, Texas, a suburb north of Dallas, second child of Charlie and Mary Darden. Her maternal grandmother, Lillian Dozier, a retired teacher, taught her to read at the tender age of four. After a rather checkered educational career, which included dropping out of high school at sixteen, she graduated from Austin College in Sherman, Texas, with a degree in biology.

She then worked in advertising and newspapers, and attended the Rice University Publishing Program. A post-university trip to England, however, cemented a life-long passion for Britain, and she later immigrated to the UK with her first husband, Peter Crombie, a Scot, living first in Edinburgh, Scotland, and then in Chester, England.

After returning to live in Dallas, a trip to Yorkshire inspired her first Detective Superintendent Duncan Kincaid/Sergeant Gemma James novel. A Share in Death [Scribner, 1993], was subsequently given Agatha and Macavity nominations for Best First Novel of 1993. The fifth novel, Dreaming of the Bones (Scribner 1997), a New York Times Notable Book for 1997, was short-listed by Mystery Writers of America for the 1997 Edgar Award for Best Novel, won the Macavity award for Best Novel, and was voted by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association as one of the hundred best mysteries of the century. Her subsequent novels have been received with critical acclaim and are widely read internationally, particularly in Germany.

In 2009, Where Memories Lie won the Macacity Award for Best Novel.  In 2010, Necessary as Blood received a Macavity nomination for Best Novel.

Crombie's novels are published in North America, Japan, Germany, Italy, France, Norway, the Netherlands, Czechoslovakia, Spain, Romania, Greece, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and numerous other countries. The latest novel in the series, To Dwell in Darkness, has been published in September, 2014, by William Morrow.

Although she travels to England several times a year, Crombie lives in McKinney, Texas, an historic town north of Dallas, sharing a circa 1905 Texas Craftsman bungalow with her husband, Rick Wilson, three German shepherds (Neela, Dax, and Jasmine), and three cats.  She is an affionado of tea and cocktails, enjoys cooking and admiring her garden, reading, birdwatching, and playing with her dogs.

She is currently working on her seventeenth Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James novel. THIS "BIO" WAS TAKEN FROM THE AUTHOR'S WEBSITE HERE AND YOU CAN GO THERE TO FIND OUT EVEN MORE ABOUT THIS FASCINATING WRITER.

 

PRAISE FOR DEBORAH CROMBIE:

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.– Cleveland Plain Dealer

 

Crombie has laid claim to the literary territory of moody psychological suspense owned by P. D. James and Barbara Vine. – Washington Post

A master of the modern British mystery…one writer who gets better with every book. – Harrisburg Patriot News

Crombie keeps this series on its toes with her smooth procedural techniques and engagingly eccentric characters. – New York Times Book Review

An uncanny affinity for the English detective genre…Her characters are three-dimensional and are drawn with compassion and sensitivity. – Dallas Morning News

Crombie has evolved into a masterful novelist. – Denver Post

SOME OTHER BOOKS BY DEBORAH CROMBIE:

                     

                    

MY THOUGHTS/REVIEW:

Deborah Crombie has a new Kincaid & James novel out and fans are loving TO DWELL IN DARKNESS! I am one of the few people who haven’t read any of the books in this series but after listening to TO DWELL IN DARKNESS, I am now a fan and will be looking forward to more of the series. 

The main characters that will delight and thrill readers are Gemma James and Duncan Kincaid—both well developed and intriguingly easy to become attached to. They are a married couple who are both British detectives. I get the idea that they don’t always start out working on cases together but somehow wind up intertwined in each other’s mysteries. 

In TO DWELL IN DARKNESS, Kincaid and James are trying to get used to Duncan being transferred out of Scotland Yard to work in Camden, a small district outside of London. Meanwhile, Gemma continues her job with assistant Melody Talbot. Both are good at what they do, and when Talbot is party to an explosion at a concert, the plot really moves full steam ahead. With horrific death, injuries and destruction, it is just by coincidence that Talbot is a witness to the mayhem. Going back over what she witnessed, the only thing that seems to make an impression on her is that trouble may have started with a group of protesters but more so, she remembers a stranger who she spoke to just before the terrible explosion went off. He seemed to have information about what was going on but she couldn’t find him with all the chaos. 

Help is called in (can you guess who?) from Kincaid and the group he works with now. Just as they start to think they are on to something, the twist comes along to move the narrative in another puzzling direction. The biggest puzzle, however, to Kincaid is personal right now. He wants to know why he can’t get a straight answer from anyone as to why he was moved away from the Yard in the first place. As questions are slowly answered and puzzles solved, the role that Gemma takes on becomes even more important. So much so, it seems that it could make everything that we know about Kincaid and Gemma take on a new light. 

Will Kincaid get his old job back? Will Talbot help Gemma to solve the confusing explosive mystery? If you aren’t a Deborah Crombie fan, you will be after reading/listening TO DWELL IN DARKNESS. I greatly enjoyed how she includes a bit of history about places in the story at the beginning of each chapter. This really helped me to create wonderful mental images and make the story come alive. I only hope I can find time to go back to the first of the Kincaid & James mysteries and read through to catch up as I think this is a team I will want to follow. If my first impressions are right, they have a lot of thrills to share in upcoming additions to this series. 

GIVEAWAY
 
 THANKS TO KATHERINE AND THE FOLKS AT
HARPER COLLINS, I HAVE ONE COPY OF 

TO DWELL IN DARKNESS, TO 

GIVE AWAY TO ONE LUCKY WINNER!

  

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