Award-winning novelist Elizabeth George (A Great Deliverance, Well-Schooled in Murder) returns with In Pursuit of a Proper Sinner, her 10th installment in the Lynley-Havers series. Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley has his work cut out for him: two mutilated corpses are found in a prehistoric stone circle in Derbyshire. One is the daughter of Lynley's former mentor, Andy Maiden.

What's more, the inspector's partner, Barbara Havers, has been suspended and is facing criminal charges of assault and attempted murder. Was Havers really saving a drowning child or was she disobeying orders? Why, then, did she fire a rifle at the detective chief inspector, and how could Lynley ethically justify it? As he grapples with the ramifications of his partner's radical insubordination, the case in Derbyshire grows in daunting complexity.

Once again, Elizabeth George delivers an intricately woven plot, which efficiently navigates the reader through nearly 600 pages. Along the way, readers will be introduced to a delightful cast of supporting characters from the dowdy Phoebe who finds the first gory cadaver to the stately Andy Maiden: "His face was drawn with exhaustion, and his growth of peppery whiskers fanned out from his moustache and shadowed his cheeks." And, of course, fans will get an eyeful of George's trademark, her vivid descriptions of death: "At her feet, a young man lay curled like a foetus, dressed head-to-toe in nothing but black, with that same colour puckering burnt flesh from eye to jaw on one side of his face."


Amazon.com Audiobook Review
The narrative talents of English stage actor Derek Jacobi are put to excellent use in this intriguing mystery of a double murder most foul. Author Elizabeth George presents her popular detectives Thomas Lynley and Barbara Havers with one of their most grisly and difficult cases ever as they search for clues to a bloody crime while struggling to repair their own strained partnership. George's mystery bobs, weaves, twists, and turns from a packed West End theater through the sumptuous halls of a country manor and into the desolate reaches of the high country moors before revealing its delightfully wicked and suspenseful conclusion. Jacobi tackles the complex plot and diverse cast of characters with relish, working his theatrical skills into an outstanding performance. (Running time: 6 hours, 4 cassettes) --George Laney


From Publishers Weekly
Selfish children grow up to betray their parents in bestselling author George's (Deception on His Mind) latest suspense novel, which opens with David King-Ryder, a renowned Andrew Lloyd Webber-like British musical writer/producer, committing suicide on the eve of his successful comeback. How his untimely death ties in with a double homicide in the Derbyshire countryside showcases George's brilliance in concocting an intricate, swiftly paced tale that brings back the popular New Scotland Yard team of detectives Thomas Lynley and Barbara Havers. Newly married Detective Inspector Lynley takes the case at the request of Andy Maiden, a former colleague who made his name as a notable undercover agent. Maiden's headstrong daughter Nicola is one of the murder victims, and when her choice to forgo a law career to become a professional dominatrix is painstakingly unearthed by the estimable detectives, Maiden, among others, becomes a prime suspect, as do Nicola's blue-blooded boyfriend, Julian Britton, and his jealous cousin, Samantha McCallin. George spices up the investigation with a side plot about Lynley and Havers's relationship, now complicated since Havers is facing demotion and disciplinary suspension for her insubordination during a previous assignment. When the redoubtable Havers links the second murder victim, Terry ColeAa struggling artist who turns out to be a get-rich-quick schemerAto the dead composer King-Ryder, Lynley dismisses his former partner's intuitive leaps and the two sleuths lock horns. George builds plausible motives for all of the suspects while simultaneously revealing the private lives of her admirable detectives with an engaging mix of subtlety and bravado. The multifaceted surprise ending to the taut, suspenseful plot is the juiciest plum in this can't-put-down novel. Agents, Robert Gottlieb, Marcy Posner, Stephanie Cabot of William Morris agency. Major ad/promo; author tour; BDD audio. (Sept.) Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Moral ambiguities and red herrings abound in George's tenth novel, as Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley investigates the murder of two seemingly unconnected victims found together on a lonely British moor: a young man and the daughter of a former colleague. George may have gone overboard here with her penchant for complex plotting, as Lynley, the local police, and Barbara Havers (on Lynley's team) pursue different suspects, among them the slain woman's many lovers, clients (she's just taken up S&M as her sex-for-hire specialty), and father. Ultimately, it is Havers, on the outs with Lynley for failing to follow orders in Deception on His Mind, who breaks the case. Throughout, Lynley grapples with moral dilemmas: How far will he go to help his former boss, the murdered woman's father? Can he ever trust Havers again? And, finally, can he accept his own fallibility and forgive himself for his role in his colleague's death? But Lynley's moral agonies are becoming tedious, and even George's many fans may find themselves tiring of her particular brand of psychological mystery/morality tale. Buy for demand.-AFrancine Fialkoff, "Library Journal" Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From AudioFile
This is the latest installment in George's immensely popular series featuring Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley and his subordinate, Detective Sergeant (here demoted to Detective Constable) Barbara Havers. A young man and woman who seem to have no connection with each other have been found murdered on the same patch of a large moor. The young woman's dad is a former cop; when her body is found, he asks for Lynley's help. This is a long (16 tapes) and complex tale. The investigation moves back and forth between London and the scene of the crime. Several plot lines take place simultaneously, each plot with its own largely separate cast of characters. Donada Peters rises well to the challenge without losing the listener. Her pacing is precise, and each of her characters is distinctive. She is particularly strong with accents, even managing to hint at the subtle inflections of an American character who wishes to be thought English. R.E.K. © AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine


Review
Elizabeth George's novels have appeared regularly on international bestseller lists since the publication of her first book in 1988. She divides her time between Huntington Beach, California, and London.

"George delivers exceptionally well-written prose, a super cast and complex psychological themes."
-- USA Today

"Ms. George's...most absorbing novel."
-- The Wall Street Journal

"George writes like Agatha Christie at the top of her game...a joy."
-- The Washington Post Book World

"George has proved herself a master of the english mystery, with an ear for local language and an eye for the inner workings of Scotland Yard."
-- The New York Times

"Exquisitely written...[George] is a genius at drawing psychological revelations from an act as casualas choosing wallpaper."
-- Los Angeles Times

"No one else writes with the complexity, the style and the sophistication that [George] displays."
-- The Dallas Morning News

From the internationally bestselling author Elizabeth George
A Great Deliverance
Payment In Blood
Well-Schooled In Murder
A Suitable Vengeance
For The Sake Of Elena
Missing Joseph
Playing For The Ashes
In The Presence Of The Enemy
Deception On His Mind

Available wherever Bantam Books are sold

And Coming Soon In Hardcover:
A Traitor to Memory


Review
Elizabeth George's novels have appeared regularly on international bestseller lists since the publication of her first book in 1988. She divides her time between Huntington Beach, California, and London.

"George delivers exceptionally well-written prose, a super cast and complex psychological themes."
-- USA Today

"Ms. George's...most absorbing novel."
-- The Wall Street Journal

"George writes like Agatha Christie at the top of her game...a joy."
-- The Washington Post Book World

"George has proved herself a master of the english mystery, with an ear for local language and an eye for the inner workings of Scotland Yard."
-- The New York Times

"Exquisitely written...[George] is a genius at drawing psychological revelations from an act as casualas choosing wallpaper."
-- Los Angeles Times

"No one else writes with the complexity, the style and the sophistication that [George] displays."
-- The Dallas Morning News

From the internationally bestselling author Elizabeth George
A Great Deliverance
Payment In Blood
Well-Schooled In Murder
A Suitable Vengeance
For The Sake Of Elena
Missing Joseph
Playing For The Ashes
In The Presence Of The Enemy
Deception On His Mind

Available wherever Bantam Books are sold

And Coming Soon In Hardcover:
A Traitor to Memory


Book Description
Calder Moor is a wild and deadly place: many have been trapped in the myriad limestone caves, lost in collapsed copper mines, injured on perilous gritstone ridges. But this time, when two bodies are discovered in the shadow of the ancient circle of stones known as Nine Sisters Henge, it is clearly not a case for Mountain Rescue. The corpses are those of a young man and woman. Each met death in a different fashion. Each died violently. To Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley, brought in to investigate by special request, this grisly crime promises to be one of the toughest assignments of his career. For the unfortunate Nicola Maiden was the daughter of a former officer in an elite undercover unit, a man Lynley once regarded as a mentor. Now, as Lynley struggles to find out if Nicola's killer was an enemy of her father's or one she earned herself, a disgraced Barbara Havers, determined to redeem herself in the eyes of her longtime partner, crisscrosses London seeking information on the second murder victim. Yet the more dark secrets Lynley and Havers uncover, the more they learn that neither the victims nor the suspects are who they appear to be. And once again they come up against the icy realization that human relationships are often murderous...and that the blood that binds can also kill.



From the Inside Flap
Calder Moor is a wild and deadly place: many have been trapped in the myriad limestone caves, lost in collapsed copper mines, injured on perilous gritstone ridges. But this time, when two bodies are discovered in the shadow of the ancient circle of stones known as Nine Sisters Henge, it is clearly not a case for Mountain Rescue. The corpses are those of a young man and woman. Each met death in a different fashion. Each died violently. To Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley, brought in to investigate by special request, this grisly crime promises to be one of the toughest assignments of his career. For the unfortunate Nicola Maiden was the daughter of a former officer in an elite undercover unit, a man Lynley once regarded as a mentor. Now, as Lynley struggles to find out if Nicola's killer was an enemy of her father's or one she earned herself, a disgraced Barbara Havers, determined to redeem herself in the eyes of her longtime partner, crisscrosses London seeking information on the second murder victim. Yet the more dark secrets Lynley and Havers uncover, the more they learn that neither the victims nor the suspects are who they appear to be. And once again they come up against the icy realization that human relationships are often murderous...and that the blood that binds can also kill.


From the Back Cover
Elizabeth George's novels have appeared regularly on international bestseller lists since the publication of her first book in 1988. She divides her time between Huntington Beach, California, and London.

"George delivers exceptionally well-written prose, a super cast and complex psychological themes."
-- USA Today

"Ms. George's...most absorbing novel."
-- The Wall Street Journal

"George writes like Agatha Christie at the top of her game...a joy."
-- The Washington Post Book World

"George has proved herself a master of the english mystery, with an ear for local language and an eye for the inner workings of Scotland Yard."
-- The New York Times

"Exquisitely written...[George] is a genius at drawing psychological revelations from an act as casualas choosing wallpaper."
-- Los Angeles Times

"No one else writes with the complexity, the style and the sophistication that [George] displays."
-- The Dallas Morning News

From the internationally bestselling author Elizabeth George
A Great Deliverance
Payment In Blood
Well-Schooled In Murder
A Suitable Vengeance
For The Sake Of Elena
Missing Joseph
Playing For The Ashes
In The Presence Of The Enemy
Deception On His Mind

Available wherever Bantam Books are sold

And Coming Soon In Hardcover:
A Traitor to Memory



About the Author
Elizabeth George's first novel, A Great Deliverance, was honored with the Anthony and Agatha Best First Novel awards and received the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière. Her third novel, Well-Schooled in Murder, was awarded the prestigious German prize for mystery fiction, the MIMI. A Suitable Vengeance, For the Sake of Elena, Missing Joseph, Playing for the Ashes, In the Presence of the Enemy, and Deception on His Mind were international bestsellers. Elizabeth George divides her time between Huntington Beach, California, and London. She is currently at work on her eleventh novel.


Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Julian Britton was a man who knew that his life thus far had amounted to nothing. He bred his dogs, he managed the crumbling ruin that was his family's estate, and daily he tried to lecture his father away from the bottle. That was the extent of it. He hadn't been a success at anything save pouring gin down the drain, and now, at twenty-seven years of age, he felt branded by failure. But he couldn't allow that to affect him tonight. Tonight he had to prevail.

He began with his appearance, giving himself a ruthless scrutiny in his bedroom's cheval glass. He straightened the collar of his shirt and flicked a piece of lint from his shoulder. He stared at his face and schooled his features into the expression he wanted them to wear. He should look completely serious, he decided. Concerned, yes, because concern was reasonable. But he shouldn't look conflicted. And certainly he shouldn't look ripped up inside and wondering how he came to be where he was, at this precise moment, with his world a shambles.

As to what he was going to say, two sleepless nights and two endless days had given Julian plenty of time to rehearse what remarks he wished to make when the appointed hour rolled round. Indeed, it was in elaborate but silent fantasy conversations--tinged with no more worry than was enough to suggest that he had nothing personal invested in the matter--that Julian had spent most of the past two nights and two days that had followed Nicola Maiden's unbelievable announcement. Now, after forty-eight hours engaged in endless colloquies within his own skull, Julian was eager to get on with things, even if he had no assurance that his words would bring the result he wanted.

He turned from the cheval glass and fetched his car keys from the top of the chest of drawers. The fine sheen of dust that usually covered its walnut surface had been removed. This told Julian that his cousin had once again submitted to the cleaning furies, a sure sign that she'd met defeat yet another time in her determined course of sobering up her uncle.

Samantha had come to Derbyshire with just that intention eight months previously, an angel of mercy who'd one day shown up at Broughton Manor with the mission of reuniting a family torn asunder for more than three decades. She hadn't made much progress in that direction, however, and Julian wondered how much longer she was going to put up with his father's bent towards the bottle.

"We've got to get him off the booze, Julie," Samantha had said to him only that morning. "You must see how crucial it is at this point."
Nicola, on the other hand, knowing his father eight years and not merely eight months, had long been of a live-and-let-live frame of mind. She'd said more than once, "If your dad's choice is to drink himself silly, there's nothing you can do about it, Jules. And there's nothing that Sam can do either." But then, Nicola didn't know how it felt to see one's father slipping ever more inexorably towards debauchery, absorbed in intensely inebriated delusions about the romance of his past. She, after all, had grown up in a home where how things seemed was identical to how things actually were. She had two parents whose love never wavered, and she'd never suffered the dual desertion of a flower-child mother flitting off to "study" with a tapestry-clad guru the night before one's own twelfth birthday and a father whose devotion to the bottle far exceeded any attachment he might have displayed towards his three children. In fact, had Nicola ever once cared to analyse the differences in their individual upbringing, Julian thought, she might have seen that every single one of her bloody decisions--

At that he brought his thoughts up short. He would not head in that direction. He could not afford to head in that direction. He could not afford to let his mind wander from the task that was immediately at hand.

"Listen to me." He grabbed his wallet from the chest and shoved it into his pocket. "You're good enough for anyone. She got scared shitless. She took a wrong turn. That's the end of it. Remember that. And remember that everyone knows how good the two of you always were together."

He had faith in this fact. Nicola Maiden and Julian Britton had been part of each other's life for years. Everyone who knew them had long ago concluded that they belonged together. It was only Nicola who, it appeared, had never come to terms with this fact.

"I know that we were never engaged," he'd told her two nights previously in response to her declaration that she was moving away from the Peaks permanently and would only be back for brief visits henceforth. "But we've always had an understanding, haven't we? I wouldn't be sleeping with you if I wasn't serious about... Come on, Nick. Damn it, you know me."

It wasn't the proposal of marriage he'd planned on making to her, and she hadn't taken it as such. She'd said bluntly, "Jules, I like you enormously. You're terrific, and you've been a real friend. And we get on far better than I've ever got on with any other bloke."

"Then you see--"

"But I don't love you," she went on. "Sex doesn't equate to love. It's only in films and books that it does."

He'd been too stunned at first to speak. It was as if his mind had become a blackboard and someone had taken a rubber to it before he had a chance to make any notes. So she'd continued.

She would, she told him, go on being his girlfriend in the Peak District if that's what he wanted. She'd be coming to see her parents now and again, and she'd always have time--and be happy, she said--to see Julian as well. They could even continue as lovers whenever she was in the area if he wished. That was fine by her. But as to marriage? They were too different as people, she explained.

"I know how much you want to save Broughton Manor," she'd said. "That's your dream, and you'll make it come true. But I don't share that dream, and I'm not going to hurt either you or myself by pretending I do. That's not fair on anyone."

Which was when he finally repossessed his wits long enough to say bitterly, "It's the God damn money. And the fact I've got none, or at least not enough to suit your tastes."

"Julian, it isn't. Not exactly." She'd turned from him briefly, giving a long sigh. "Let me explain."

He'd listened for what had seemed like an hour, although she'd likely spoken ten minutes or less. At the end, after everything had been said between them and she'd climbed out of the Rover and disappeared into the dark gabled porch of Maiden Hall, he'd driven home numbly, shell-shocked with grief, confusion, and surprise, thinking No, she couldn't . . . she can't mean    No. After Sleepless Night Number One, he'd come to realise--past his own pain--how great was the need for him to take action. He'd phoned, and she'd agreed to see him. She would always, she said, be willing to see him.

He gave a final glance in the mirror before he left the room, and he treated himself to a last affirmation: "You were always good together. Keep that in mind."

He slipped along the dim upstairs passage of the manor house and looked into the small room that his father used as a parlour. His family's increasingly straitened financial circumstances had effected a general retreat from all the larger rooms downstairs that had slowly been made uninhabitable as their various antiques, paintings, and objets d'art were sold to make ends meet. Now the Brittons lived entirely on the house's upper floor. There were abundant rooms for them, but they were cramped and dark.

Jeremy Britton was in the parlour. As it was half past ten, he was thoroughly blotto, head on his chest and a cigarette burning down between his fingers. Julian crossed the room and removed the fag from his father's hand. Jeremy didn't stir.

Julian cursed quietly, looking at him: at the promise of intelligence, vigour, and pride completely eradicated by the addiction. His father was going to burn the place down someday, and there were times--like now--when Julian thought that complete conflagration might be all for the best. He crushed out Jeremy's cigarette and reached into his shirt pocket for the packet of Dunhills. He removed it and did the same with his father's lighter. He grabbed up the gin bottle and left the room.

He was dumping the gin, cigarettes, and lighter into the dustbins at the back of the manor house when he heard her speak.

"Caught him at it again, Julie?"

He started, looked about, but failed to see her in the gloom. Then she rose from where she'd been sitting: on the edge of the drystone wall that divided the back entrance of the manor from the first of its overgrown gardens. An untrimmed wisteria--beginning to lose its leaves with the approach of autumn--had sheltered her. She dusted off the seat of her khaki shorts and sauntered over to join him.

"I'm beginning to think he wants to kill himself," Samantha said in the practical manner that was her nature. "I just haven't come up with the reason why."

"He doesn't need a reason," Julian said shortly. "Just the means."

"I try to keep him off the sauce, but he's got bottles everywhere." She glanced at the dark manor house that rose before them like a fortress in the landscape. "I do try, Julian. I know it's important." She looked back at him and regarded his clothes. "You're looking very smart. I didn't think to dress up. Was I supposed to?"

Julian returned her look blankly, his hands moving to his chest to pat his shirt, searching for something that he knew wasn't there.

"You've forgotten, haven't you?" Samantha said. She was very good at making intuitive leaps.

Julian waited for elucidation.

"The eclipse," she said.

"The eclipse?" He thought about it. He clapped a hand to his forehead. "God. The eclipse. Sam. Hell. I'd forgotten. Is the eclipse tonight? Are you going somewhere to see it better?"

She said with a nod to the spot from which she'd just emerged, "I've got us some provisions. Cheese and fruit, some bread, a bit of sausage. Wine. I thought we might want it if we have to wait longer than you'd thought."

"To wait? Oh hell, Samantha..." He wasn't sure how to put it. He hadn't intended her to think he meant to watch the eclipse with her. He hadn't intended her to think he meant to watch the eclipse at all.

"Have I got the date wrong?" The tone of her voice spoke her disappointment. She already knew that she had the date right and that if she wanted to see the eclipse from Eyam Moor, she was going to have to hike out there alone.

His mention of the lunar eclipse had been a casual remark. At least, that's how he'd intended it to be taken. He'd said conversationally, "One can see it quite well from Eyam Moor. It's supposed to happen round half past eleven. Are you interested in astronomy, Sam?"

Samantha had obviously interpreted this as an invitation, and Julian felt a momentary annoyance with his cousin's presumption. But he did his best to hide it because he owed her so much. It was in the cause of reconciling her mother with her uncle--Julian's father--that she'd been making her lengthy visits to Broughton Manor from Winchester for the past eight months. Each stay had become progressively longer as she found more employment round the estate, either in the renovation of the manor house proper or in the smooth running of the tournaments, fêtes, and reenactments that Julian organised in the grounds as yet another source of Britton income. Her helpful presence had been a real godsend since Julian's siblings had long fled the family nest and Jeremy hadn't lifted a finger since he'd inherited  the property--and proceeded to populate it with his fellow flower-children and run it into the ground--shortly after his twenty-fifth birthday.

Still, grateful as Julian was for Sam's help, he wished his cousin hadn't assumed so much. He'd felt guilty about the amount of work she was doing purely from the goodness of her heart, and he'd been casting about aimlessly for some form of repayment. He had no available money to offer her, not that she would have needed or accepted it had he done so, but he did have his dogs as well as his knowledge of and enthusiasm for Derbyshire. And wanting to make her feel welcome for as long as possible at Broughton Manor, he'd offered her the only thing he had: occasional activities with the harriers as well as conversation. And it was a conversation about the eclipse that she had misunderstood.

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
In Deadly Pursuit

You don't think of the Agatha Christie style of novel as being overhauled, but in fact, a number of very good writers have been pushing the cozy into some brave new areas. Nancy Pickard, Joan Hess, and Carolyn Hart, to name just a few, have demonstrated that the cozy can be serious as well as seriously (or pointedly, if you prefer) funny.

Over the past decade, Elizabeth George has also been pushing the Christie-style mystery into richer and more rewarding areas. Her new novel, In Pursuit of the Proper Sinner, is so rich in character, incident, and theme that one finally has to take it seriously, not just as a mystery but as a novel as well. I'm not going to say that it "transcends the mystery genre," because that's offensive to mystery writers. And rightly so. But I will say that, in much the same way that Sharyn McCrumb has expanded the range of the serious crime novel, George has also pushed her particular form to the limits.

The central plot deals with two bodies found in a circle of prehistoric stones. Who were they? How did they get there? Did the victims even know each other? Detectives Thomas Lynley and Barbara Havers find themselves caught up in a mystery that grows more perplexing the longer they contemplate it. As usual with George, the mystery itself is well devised and a lot of fun to speculate on as you read.

George is now a far better stylist than she was in her first few books, and she has also backed off some of her more labored descriptions of place.Hercharacters have deepened, too; they're more morally ambiguous than they once were — the good not quite so good, the bad not quite so nasty. She seems more comfortable with police routine, too. Those sections are more animated now, less like riffs on textbook pages and background notes.

There's a lot of tricky stage management here, and George pulls it off with great stylish ease. She lingers when it's appropriate to linger and speeds up when the story starts to lag. There are a lot of people and a lot of subplots, and pacing is critical to a novel of this size and scope. Elizabeth George has written a fine, intense, thoughtful, and sometimes stunning novel of passion and betrayal. I haven't read all her novels, but I can't imagine that she's written a better one than this.

—Ed Gorman

Ed Gorman's latest novels include Daughter of Darkness, Harlot's Moon, and Black River Falls, the latter of which "proves Gorman's mastery of the pure suspense novel," says Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. ABC-TV has optioned the novel as a movie. Gorman is also the editor of Mystery Scene magazine, which Stephen King calls "indispensable" for mystery readers.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Calder Moor is a wild and deadly place: many have been trapped in the myriad limestone caves, lost in collapsed copper mines, injured on perilous gritstone ridges. But this time, when two bodies are discovered in the shadow of the ancient circle of stones known as Nine Sisters Henge, it is clearly not a case for Mountain Rescue. The corpses are those of a young man and woman. Each met death in a different fashion. Each died violently.

To Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley, brought in to investigate by special request, this grisly crime promises to be one of the toughest assignments of his career. For the unfortunate Nicola Maiden was the daughter of a former officer in an elite undercover unit, a man Lynley once regarded as a mentor. Now, as Lynley struggles to find out if Nicola's killer was an enemy of her father's or one she earned herself, a disgraced Barbara Havers, determined to redeem herself in the eyes of her longtime partner, crisscrosses London seeking information on the second murder victim.

Yet the more dark secrets Lynley and Havers uncover, the more they learn that neither the victims nor the suspects are who they appear to be. And once again they come up against the icy realization that human relationships are often murderous...and that the blood that binds can also kill.

FROM THE CRITICS

Richmond Times-Dispatch

"Dazzlingly brilliant...George's work continues to amaze."

Publishers Weekly

Selfish children grow up to betray their parents in bestselling author George's (Deception on His Mind) latest suspense novel, which opens with David King-Ryder, a renowned Andrew Lloyd Webber-like British musical writer/producer, committing suicide on the eve of his successful comeback. How his untimely death ties in with a double homicide in the Derbyshire countryside showcases George's brilliance in concocting an intricate, swiftly paced tale that brings back the popular New Scotland Yard team of detectives Thomas Lynley and Barbara Havers. Newly married Detective Inspector Lynley takes the case at the request of Andy Maiden, a former colleague who made his name as a notable undercover agent. Maiden's headstrong daughter Nicola is one of the murder victims, and when her choice to forgo a law career to become a professional dominatrix is painstakingly unearthed by the estimable detectives, Maiden, among others, becomes a prime suspect, as do Nicola's blue-blooded boyfriend, Julian Britton, and his jealous cousin, Samantha McCallin. George spices up the investigation with a side plot about Lynley and Havers's relationship, now complicated since Havers is facing demotion and disciplinary suspension for her insubordination during a previous assignment. When the redoubtable Havers links the second murder victim, Terry Cole--a struggling artist who turns out to be a get-rich-quick schemer--to the dead composer King-Ryder, Lynley dismisses his former partner's intuitive leaps and the two sleuths lock horns. George builds plausible motives for all of the suspects while simultaneously revealing the private lives of her admirable detectives with an engaging mix of subtlety and bravado. The multifaceted surprise ending to the taut, suspenseful plot is the juiciest plum in this can't-put-down novel. Agents, Robert Gottlieb, Marcy Posner, Stephanie Cabot of William Morris agency. Major ad/promo; author tour; BDD audio. (Sept.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Moral ambiguities and red herrings abound in George's tenth novel, as Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley investigates the murder of two seemingly unconnected victims found together on a lonely British moor: a young man and the daughter of a former colleague. George may have gone overboard here with her penchant for complex plotting, as Lynley, the local police, and Barbara Havers (on Lynley's team) pursue different suspects, among them the slain woman's many lovers, clients (she's just taken up S&M as her sex-for-hire specialty), and father. Ultimately, it is Havers, on the outs with Lynley for failing to follow orders in Deception on His Mind, who breaks the case. Throughout, Lynley grapples with moral dilemmas: How far will he go to help his former boss, the murdered woman's father? Can he ever trust Havers again? And, finally, can he accept his own fallibility and forgive himself for his role in his colleague's death? But Lynley's moral agonies are becoming tedious, and even George's many fans may find themselves tiring of her particular brand of psychological mystery/morality tale. Buy for demand. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 6/1/99.]--Francine Fialkoff, "Library Journal" Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

AudioFile - Robin F. Whitten