Author: Elizabeth George

Title: This body of death

Elizabeth George has enough praises and she doesn’t need another one. But you just can’t put her book away and say nothing. Her latest title of Inspector Lynley series, ‘This body of death’, is such a good read that one has to give it the thumb’s up – what a brilliant book. 

Yes, it’s brilliant. It plots well, and structures perfectly. A woman’s body is discovered in a Stoke Newington cemetery in London. She needs to be identified. The clue leads the investigators, New Scotland Yard detectives go to New Forest. What is there and what is the connection with London?

Newly appointed Acting Superintendent Isabelle Ardery is under pressure from the top up as well as from those under her. She needs to bring the team together, and solve the case as quickly as possible. Thomas Lynley was on compassionate leave, mourning his wife who had been brutally murdered by a 12 year old six months before. Now the team needs him and Ardery needs him. So coming back, Lynley is on the rein with Ardery. 

The chilling report of three teenagers, who kidnapped and then deliberately tortured and killed a toddler, is interwoven with the main plot of the dead woman. So what’s the purpose of this sideline and discomfort of report? Elizabeth George keeps readers guessing until the very end.

The characters of the book are equally fascinating. Inspector Lynley isn’t a new character in the series. However Ardery is new to readers. A seemingly strong and ambitious character like Ardery, is vulnerable through Lynley’s eyes.  However, their intimacy seems to rush out of Lynley’s norm.

Meanwhile Lynley’s old working partner Barbara Havers now works mostly by herself. From different angles she works in her own way to painstakingly find the murderers.

It’s a thick book and almost 600 pages. But you don’t want to put it down until the last page is turned over. 

Parramatta City Library has few copies available for loan.