Just One Evil Act

Starred review from August 12, 2013
This riveting tale of love, passion, and betrayal, the 18th Inspector Lynley novel from bestseller George (after 2012’s Believing the Lie), spotlights Det. Sgt. Barbara Havers. Taymullah Azhar, a science professor who’s a friend and neighbor of Havers in North London, is devastated to come home one day and discover that his nine-year-old daughter, Hadiyyah, and most of her possessions are gone. Hadiyyah’s mother, Angelina Upman, to whom Azhar was never married, has decamped to Italy with the girl. A grateful Azhar accepts Havers’s offer to act as a private detective, though her superiors resist her request for a leave of absence. Months later, when kidnappers take Hadiyyah from Angelina in an Italian marketplace, Lynley travels to Lucca, Tuscany, to look into the matter. Havers later goes AWOL to Lucca, where she seizes the initiative in the case and risks her career to persuade Scotland Yard to get involved. Fully realized Italian characters, from a lover whose face cannot hide his emotions to the charming Chief Insp. Salvatore Lo Bianco, add to the rich ensemble cast. Series fans will enjoy following Lynley and Havers on their first investigation outside the U.K., while newcomers will be just as enthralled. Agent: Robert Gottlieb, Trident Media Group.

August 1, 2013
Inspector Lynley returns for a bout of trans-European hijinks--his first adventure outside Old Blighty. Though an American herself, it's taken George time to build a domestic audience for her long-running Lynley series, adapted for British television and then repatriated as an occasional Masterpiece Mystery offering. George's hero is a nod to Dorothy Sayers, though Lynley, a discomfited lord working among the peasants of Scotland Yard, lacks most of Peter Wimsey's affectations. For the first time in many volumes, George again pairs Lynley with tough-talking northerner Barbara Havers, who's not always scrupulous about the letter of the law; as she tells one investigator, "I don't care if you break laws or not....Spy on anyone you need to spy on. Go through their rubbish. Hack into their mobiles and their Internet accounts. Take over their email." Rupert Murdoch would be proud, but Havers has a fraught mission: The daughter of a friend has been kidnapped in Italy, where her mother, estranged from that friend, has taken the child. Said friend, a Pakistani microbiologist, may not be entirely innocent--and in all events, it seems, shadowy parties want daughter and mother. Though the book is too long by a couple of hundred pages, George is a master of the wily plot and the timely tossed out red herring. She's also not bad at the icky but effective detail: "Maggots still writhed in the man's eyes, nose, and mouth; beetles had been feasting on his skin; mites and millipedes scurried into the open neck of his linen shirt." Yet the book goes on long enough that some of the dramatic force is blunted; it could have benefited from some economizing. Too, George falls victim to the local-color gambit, insisting that ordinary terms be put into the other language: A cellphone is a cellphone is a cellphone, so calling it a telefonino to emphasize the fact that we're in Italy is more than a touch precious. George's fans will be glad to see Havers back in action, even though, as ever, she's quick to land in trouble. And as for Lynley--well, he's as cool as ever, in more than one sense of the word.

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September 1, 2013
As her devoted readers know, George's D.I. Lynley procedurals are more about characters than crime. This entry is certainly no different, but, unlike the most recent books, which center on a distraught Lynley, recovering from his wife's murder, the focus is on Lynley's partner (and polar opposite), D.S. Barbara Havers. It begins when Taymullah Azhar, Barbara's neighbor, asks for help in finding his beloved daughter, Hadiyyah, with whom his wife has absconded. So begins a sprawling investigation that careens from England to Italy and back again, as cops in both countries investigate child abduction and murder, ending with Azhar looking very like a killer. Through it all, volatile, unkempt, vulnerable Barbara is so invested in Azhar that she loses sight of everything and everyone else. Unfortunately, her stubborn loyalty does not come across as entirely rational this time, but readers who've grown attached to the obstinate, outspoken cop over the course of the series will surely forgive her for being blinded by affection. The tale is both overlong and occasionally overwrought, but series fans will not be inclined to put it down unfinished. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Not among the best in George's long-running and consistently popular series, but still certain to draw many requests among public-library readers.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)

April 15, 2013

When the daughter of Taymullah Azhar vanishes with her mother, Angelina, Det. Sgt. Barbara Havers can't help because Taymullah never married Angelina. Then Angelina returns to inform them that little Hadiyyah has been kidnapped from an Italian marketplace, and Inspector Thomas Lynley, Havers's partner, heads south to help. The last Lynley novel debuted in the top spot on the New York Times best sellers list.

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from August 1, 2013

The newest installment in George's Inspector Lynley series picks up directly where Believing the Lie left off. Taymullah Azhar, Sgt. Barbara Havers's friend and neighbor, has come home to an empty house. His girlfriend, Angelina, has left with their daughter, Hadiyyah, leaving no trace. Azhar has no official parental rights to Haddiyah, as he and Angelina never married. Barbara helps Azhar hire a private investigator to try to locate Angelina and Hadiyyah. Several months later, Angelina returns. She and Hadiyyah have been living in Lucca, Italy, with Angelina's Italian lover. Now Angelina claims that Hadiyyah has been kidnapped and that Azhar is behind it. In a first for George, much of the action takes place in Tuscany, with Barbara's partner, Insp. Thomas Lynley, acting as a liaison officer for Angelina and Azhar during the search for their daughter. Barbara plays the starring role in the other half of the narrative, and the reader is caught up in just how quickly she goes off the rails, professionally and ethically, in the name of friendship. VERDICT This is a must for fans of this series. The twists and turns are vintage George and do not disappoint. [See Prepub Alert, 3/18/13.]--Kristen Stewart, Pearland Lib., Brazoria Cty. Lib. System, TX

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2013

The newest installment in George's Inspector Lynley series picks up directly where Believing the Lie left off. Taymullah Azhar, Sgt. Barbara Havers's friend and neighbor, has come home to an empty house. His girlfriend, Angelina, has left with their daughter, Hadiyyah, leaving no trace. Azhar has no official parental rights to Haddiyah, as he and Angelina never married. Barbara helps Azhar hire a private investigator to try to locate Angelina and Hadiyyah. Several months later, Angelina returns. She and Hadiyyah have been living in Lucca, Italy, with Angelina's Italian lover. Now Angelina claims that Hadiyyah has been kidnapped and that Azhar is behind it. In a first for George, much of the action takes place in Tuscany, with Barbara's partner, Insp. Thomas Lynley, acting as a liaison officer for Angelina and Azhar during the search for their daughter. Barbara plays the starring role in the other half of the narrative, and the reader is caught up in just how quickly she goes off the rails, professionally and ethically, in the name of friendship. VERDICT This is a must for fans of this series. The twists and turns are vintage George and do not disappoint. [See Prepub Alert, 3/18/13.]--Kristen Stewart, Pearland Lib., Brazoria Cty. Lib. System, TX

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.