In A Dark House

This time in the week we look to post one of the reviews of a novel that we had been reading, or rather read is the right word.

By now you must have got the hint that we read - and then review - crime-thrillers and this is no different as well. Today we have a review of a novel by a Brit author, Deborah Crombie, who has over the years have enthralled her readers with her crime thriller series featuring two respectable detectives, rich in characterisation, intricate description and multi-layered plot.

In a Dark House is the tenth novel from Crombie's much-acclaimed Kincaid/James series, which kick starts from a mysterious fire to an abandoned warehouse in Southwark, being put out by the local firefighters team who discover a naked charred body of a woman. This discovery opens up Pandora box for the local CID with an aide from Scotland Yard's Detective Superintendent Duncan Kincaid, due to mitigating reasons, looking to investigate the murder. However, this is not it as there are other two missing cases in the same vicinity that have actually connected Kincaid to his partner, Detective Gemma James.

Crombie keeps the mystery at its peak and creates a multi-layered storyline with the possibility of one of the three different women to be the victim in that warehouse – a runaway, a nurse, or a wife. But it also raises the question, if one of the women is that victim in the warehouse, then what about the other two women? Where are they? There are more questions to it also, whether the fire was started deliberately, and whether the fire had anything to do with the dead body? A police investigation is carried out, questioning each and every person closely, or otherwise, related to those three women; begins to reveal intimate as well as disturbing facts about them which keeps the readers engrossed.

In the background, the author doesn't let the mystery overshadow the lives of her two main characters, Detective Superintendent Duncan Kincaid and his love-partner, strong-headed Detective Gemma James. The novel has its share of eye-opening twists with several plots merging precisely towards the end.

The novel is a fantastic plot, gripping with a hint of English sophistication in it to make it a pleasant read. All we can say to Crombie is, it’s a job well done!