SummaryNew York Times Notable Book of the Year author Deborah
Crombie has garnered tremendous praise -- and has been
nominated for virtually every major mystery award -- for
her piercing police procedurals featuring Scotland Yard
detectives Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James, who are
personally and professionally entwined. Now Gemma takes
center stage when a lethal crime of passion turns a
recreational trip to Scotland into pure bloody business. Though her reputation for delving into the heart of murder
is matched only by that of her former partner and current
lover, Duncan Kincaid, newly appointed Detective Inspector
Gemma James has never thought to question her friend Hazel
Cavendish about her past. So it is quite a shock when Gemma
learns that their holiday retreat to a hotel in the
Scottish Highlands is, in fact, a homecoming for native
daughter Hazel -- and an event that has provoked strong
reactions from the small community. Something is definitely
amiss -- and that something is quite possibly Donald
Brodie, the charming if intense Scotsman who is a guest as
well. The truth comes out before long: Hazel and Brodie were once
lovers, despite a vicious, long-standing feud between their
families, rival local distillers of fine whisky. Their
affair was fierce and passionate, and its fire might not
have burned out completely. Certainly Brodie, now the
domineering head of the family business, believes
his "Juliet" still belongs to him alone -- and he's
prepared to destroy Hazel's English marriage to make it so. A brutal murder puts Hazel's very life in peril when she's
arrested for the crime. Hazel is the logical suspect, but
Gemma knows nothing is simple in this place of secrets and
long-seething hatreds. As even more damning evidence piles
up against the friend Gemma never truly knew, the
investigation into Hazel and Brodie's history begins to
take darker, more sinister and tumultuous turns. Gemma
knows she will need assistance to unravel this bloody knot -
- and so she calls the one man she trusts more than any
other, Duncan Kincaid, to join her far from home . . . and
in harm's way.
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