Garden of Lamentations

Det. Supt. Duncan Kincaid is still smarting from an unexplained reassignment and demotion, in bestseller Crombie’s absorbing 17th novel featuring Kincaid and his wife, Det. Insp. Gemma James (after 2014’s To Dwell in Darkness). He’s also troubled by loose ends after a grenade attack and devastating fire at London’s St. Pancras station and the cryptic utterances of his former boss, Chief Supt. Denis Childs. When Childs is attacked and sinks into a coma, Kincaid glimpses larger forces at work, sets out to unravel the mystery of Childs’s past and the trail of police colleagues who ostensibly died by suicide, and fears for the safety of his family and his investigative teams of past and present. Meanwhile, Gemma looks into the case of a nanny murdered in a Notting Hill garden, which affects the lives of one of Gemma’s friends and a ballet classmate of Gemma’s son. Through several points of view, this multifaceted novel provides a sobering cautionary tale about the exploitation of idealism and the abuse of power. Seven-city author tour. Agent: Nancy Yost, Nancy Yost Literary Agency. (Feb.)