The books about Detective Inspector Lynley and Detective
Sergeant Barbara Havers of New Scotland Yard are a well
established series. In JUST ONE EVIL ACT, American author
Elizabeh George takes her setting, and peer, to Italy for
part of the story, the rest of the time wandering around
London with Havers who is being her usual awkward self.
Havers has a friend and neighbour, a little girl aged nine
of partly Pakistani origin. When little Hadiyyah goes
missing along with her mother, the girl's father is
distraught and believes that his daughter has been taken by
his estranged partner. It's not really Havers's job but
she gets involved and even goes to a private investigator.
Next thing, someone else abducts Hadiyyah from her mother's
care in Italy, and the woman immediately assumes that the
girl's father is responsible and has taken the child to
Pakistan. He hasn't, but where, then, is little Hadiyyah?
Braving the wrath of a female superior officer, Havers
tells a tabloid newspaper about the situation so that
publicity will force the British police to act. Lynley,
with his smooth Italian and diplomatic ways, is foreseeably
the one who is sent to act as liaison to the police in
Italy. Brixton-born cop Winston Nkata makes only a couple
of appearances.
In this instalment Lynley is starting to recover from the
death of his wife and the interlude abroad might
be just what he needs. On the other hand, given that we
know the Italian scene will be a mere tangent to the whole
series, it is easy to skip lightly over the pages of
descriptive matter, musings of Italian police and other
locals who are being questioned.
A new reader to the series should probably start a few
books back, to get a handle on the personalities and
situations, though each book deals with separate crimes.
For those who have been following the tale, the big
questions now are why is detective Barbara Havers so scruffy
and heedless of authority, and will she ever clean up her
act, which would make her much more likely to find a
boyfriend. Maybe in the next book.
JUST ONE EVIL ACT is a
lengthy read for fans of Elizabeth George and contains
plenty of Italian scenes and phrases in a departure from
her normal settings. I liked many aspects of the book but
it's not my favourite by this author.
#1 New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth
George delivers another masterpiece of suspense in her
Inspector Lynley series: a gripping child-in-danger story
that tests Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers like never
before.
Barbara is at a loss: The daughter of
her friend Taymullah Azhar has been taken by her mother, and
Barbara can’t really help—Azhar had never married Angelina,
and his name isn’t on Hadiyyah’s, their daughter’s, birth
certificate. He has no legal claim. Azhar and Barbara hire a
private detective, but the trail goes cold.
Azhar
is just beginning to accept his soul-crushing loss when
Angelina reappears with shocking news: Hadiyyah is missing,
kidnapped from an Italian marketplace. The Italian police
are investigating, and the Yard won’t get involved, until
Barbara takes matters into her own hands — at the risk of
her own career.
As both Barbara and her
partner, Inspector Thomas Lynley, soon discover, the case is
far more complex than a typical kidnapping, revealing
secrets that could have far-reaching effects outside of the
investigation. With both her job and the life of a
little girl on the line, Barbara must decide what matters
most, and how far she’s willing to go to protect it.
© 2003-2024 off-the-edge.net
all rights reserved Privacy Policy