Necessary as Blood

Once the haunt of Jack the Ripper, London’s East End is a vibrant mix of history and new ideas. Races and cultures still clash, and the trendy galleries and glitzy nightlife of Brick Lane disguise a violent and seedy underside, where unthinkable crimes bring terror to the innocent.

Artist and young mother, Sandra Gilles, disappears without trace after leaving her three-year-old daughter, Charlotte, with a friend at the Columbia Road Flower Market. Her lawyer husband, Naz Malik, is devastated – but he’s also the prime suspect.

When Naz vanishes shortly afterwards, Gemma James and her partner Superintendent Duncan Kincaid agree to work together again to solve the case before the murderer can get his hands on the real prize, Charlotte.

But just as the case grows more dangerous, a personal issue threatens to throw Gemma and Duncan off the trail. In the end, it is up to them to stop a vicious killer and protect the child whose fate hangs in the balance.

'Crombie's latest Kincaid and James crime story is as rich in its picture of cultural and racial flux as it is in its framework of family dynamics . . . it tells a subtle and moving, character-driven story' Booklist

No Mark Upon Her is Deborah Crombie’s fourteenth novel. Her Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James detective series have been nominated for the Agatha, Macavity and Edgar Awards. She lives with her family in a small north Texas town.