This is the 21st book of the ‘Inspector Lynley’ series but this can be read as a stand alone novel.
Central to the story is the death of a woman detective who was working undercover to investigate and put an end to the distasteful practice of female genital mutilation (FMG), which is still practiced illegally among some African migrant communities in England, in secret.
This is a hugely complex story that revolves around a number of threads.
There is a family of Nigerian migrants, with British born children, and a young daughter who is being considered for a lucrative marriage back in Africa, once she has been ‘made pure’ by FMG. There is a community agency that assists young women who are at risk of FMG from their families, and strangely, a wealthy photo journalist who is engaged to document the stories of the young women who seek their assistance. And finally, the story of the murdered detective herself; her personal family life and yearning for her African roots.
FMG is a very important issue, and is the core of this book, eclipsing the murder mystery itself; Inspector Lynley and his team are reduced to being minor extras in the story. Clearly the author feels very strongly about the subject, but the horrors of the process are repeated so often, and so graphically, that I found myself thoroughly disengaged by the end.
Fairly early on in the story I also worked out who committed the murder and why, so when Lynley and his team finally arrived at the same conclusion, it was an anticlimax. I found it disappointing, and at 600-odd pages, could have done with some editing down.
Reviewed by Lesley West
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Elizabeth George is the New York Times and internationally best selling author of twenty British crime novels featuring Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley and his unconventional partner Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers. Her crime novels have been featured on television by the BBC. She is also the author of a young adult series set on the island where she lives in the state of Washington.
A longtime instructor of creative writing, she has taught at colleges, universities, writers’ retreats, and conferences internationally.
She has taught a live online creative writing class for Hedgebrook Women’s Writers’ Retreat on Whidbey Island.
She is the recipient of the Anthony Award, the Agatha Award, France’s Grand Prix di Literatture Policiere, and Germany’s MIMI. She has twice been nominated for an Edgar Award, and she is the recipient of an honorary doctorate of humane letters from California State University Fullerton, and an honorary MFA from Northwest Institute of Language Arts (Whidbey Island MFA Program).
She has also written the longtime best selling creative writing book Write Away, has edited two volumes of short stories, and is the executive chair of the Elizabeth George Foundation, which makes grants to poets, emerging playwrights, and unpublished novelists.
0 Comments