PRAISE FOR DEBORAH CROMBIE’S
A FINER END
“Crombie has laid claim to the literary territory of moody psychological suspense owned by P. D. James and Barbara Vine. Superbly creepy and melodramatic.”
—The Washington Post
“Crombie … has evolved into a masterful novelist.”
—The Denver Post
“Very richly written.”
—Deadly Pleasures
“A master of the modern British mystery … one writer who gets better with every book.”
—The Patriot News
“A really splendid book.”
—Booknews from The Poisoned Pen
“Intricately layered.”
—The New York Times
“Careful plotting, the development of characters and the evocation of place are hallmarks of Crombie’s writing and the current book is no exception.”
—Mystery Lovers Bookshop News
“A clever, cunning series.”
—Book Barn Gazette
“Superbly creepy and melodramatic. Like The Hound of the Baskervilles, one of those rare mysteries in which titanic forces clash.”
—Washington Post Book World, Fiction Raves 2001
“The atmosphere … is perfect.”
—Booklist
KISSED A SAD GOODBYE
“Atmospheric … absorbing … haunting.”
—The Washington Post Book World
“Crombie never stumbles as she maneuvers her way through her complicated plot as skillfully as she handles the ongoing romance between her two detectives. The result is an Anglophile’s delight.”
—The Sunday Denver Post
“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.”
—The Plain Dealer, Cleveland
“An engaging, richly peopled, satisfying mystery.”
—Houston Chronicle
“Compelling from start to finish. Another winner from a dependable and gifted pro.”
—Kirkus Review (starred review)
“[A] beautifully executed story of murder and revenge … With each volume, Crombie grows in the understanding of her characters and hones her writing and creative skills with verve and elan.”
—Booknews from The Poisoned Pen
“Gripping. Highly recommended.” —Library Journal
“Readers … who loved Deborah Crombie’s Dreaming of the Bones will not be disappointed with Kissed a Sad Goodbye.… Outstanding.”
—Mystery Lovers Bookshop News
DREAMING OF THE BONES
A NEW YORK TIMES
NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR
NAMED ONE OF THE CENTURY’S BEST MYSTERY NOVELS BY THE INDEPENDENT MYSTERY BOOKSELLERS ASSOCIATION
NOMINATED FOR THE EDGAR AND THE AGATHA AWARDS FOR THE YEAR’S BEST NOVEL
“Fascinating … multilayered.”
—The New York Times Book Review
“A definite recommendation for fans of Elizabeth George, P. D. James, and Ruth Rendell.”
—Library Journal
“Dreaming of the Bones will make you cry and catch your breath in surprise.” —Chicago Tribune
ALSO BY DEBORAH CROMBIEAll Shall Be WellA Share in DeathLeave the Grave GreenMourn Not Your DeadDreaming of the Bones*Kissed a Sad Goodbye*And Justice There Is None*
*Available from Bantam Books
A FINER END
A Bantam Book
PUBLISHING HISTORY
Bantam hardcover edition / May 2001
Bantam paperback edition / June 2002
Map illustration by Laura Hartman Maestro
All rights reserved.
Grateful acknowledgment is made to Samuel Weiser, Inc. for permission to reprint material from GLASTONBURY: AVALON OF THE HEART by Dion Fortune (York Beach, ME: Samuel Weiser, 2000). Material used by permission.
Copyright © 2001 by Deborah Crombie
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
For information address: Bantam Books.
eISBN: 978-0-307-78940-2
Bantam Books are published by Bantam Books, a division of Random House, Inc. Its trademark, consisting of the words “Bantam Books” and the portrayal of a rooster, is Registered in U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and in other countries. Marca Registrada. Bantam Books, New York, New York.
v3.1
For my mother, who has always believed in me
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thanks to my writer’s group once again for their unstinting support and patience: Steve Copling, Dale Denton, Jim Evans, John Hardie, Viqui Litman, Diane Sullivan, and Rickey Thornton. Added thanks to Diane Sullivan, RN, BSN, for advice on medical matters, and to Dr. Davis Wortman, director of music, St. Matthew’s Cathedral, Dallas, Texas, for his advice on the complexity of Gregorian chant.
I am also indebted to Marcia Talley and Carol Chase for their suggestions and additional readings of the manuscript; to my editor, Kate Miciak, for making this a better book; and to my agent, Nancy Yost, for her encouragement.
And last but certainly not least, thanks to Rick and Katie, for providing me a firm foundation.
Contents
Cover
Other Books by This Author
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Map
Part I Chapter OneChapter TwoChapter ThreeChapter FourChapter FiveChapter SixChapter Seven
Part II Chapter EightChapter NineChapter TenChapter ElevenChapter TwelveChapter ThirteenChapter FourteenChapter FifteenChapter SixteenChapter SeventeenChapter EighteenChapter NineteenChapter TwentyChapter Twenty-one
About the Author
PART I
CHAPTER ONE
Imagination is a great gift, a Divine power of the mind, and may be trained and educated to create and to receive only that which is true.
—FREDERICK BLIGH BOND,
FROM THE GATE OF REMEMBRANCE
THE SHADOWS CREPT into Jack Montfort’s small office, filling the corners with a comfortable dimness. He’d come to look forward to his time alone at the day’s end—he told himself he got more done without phones ringing and the occasional client calling in, but perhaps, he thought wryly, it was merely that he had little enough reason to go home.
Standing at his window, he gazed down at the pedestrians hurrying along either side of Magdalene Street, and wondered idly where they were all scurrying off to so urgently on a Wednesday evening. Across the street the Abbey gates had shut at five, and as he watched, the guard let the last few stragglers out from the grounds. The March day had been bright with a biting wind, and Jack imagined that anyone who’d been enticed by the sun into wandering around the Abbey’s fishpond would be chilled to the bone. Now the remaining buttresses of the great church would be silhouetted against the clear rose of the eastern sky, a fitting reward for those who had braved the cold.