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 canβt really helpβAzhar had never married Angelina,
and his name isnβt on Hadiyyahβs, their daughterβs, 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 wonβt get involved, until
Barbara takes matters into her own hands β at the risk of
her own career.Β 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.Β With both her job and the life of a
little girl on the line, Barbara must decide what matters
most, and how far sheβs willing to go to protect it.
No excerpt available.
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