In Pursuit of the Proper Sinner: An Inspector Lynley Novel: 9 - Softcover

George, Elizabeth

Softcover

ISBN 10: 034068884X ISBN 13: 9780340688847

Publisher: Hodder Paperbacks, 2000

Synopsis

When the body of Nicola Maiden, the daughter of a retired Scotland Yard undercover officer, is found near an unidentified body in the middle of a pre-historic stone circle in Derbyshire, Inspector Lynley is asked to lead the investigation into the deaths.
Lynley must get to the bottom of the crime without the assistance of his long-time partner Sergeant Barbara Havers following her demotion as a result of an internal investigation.
But Barbara Havers has plans of her own, and they involve the very case that Lynley is working on . . .

About this title

Review:

Award winning novelist Elizabeth George (A Great Deliverance, Well-Schooled in Murder) returns with In Pursuit of a Proper Sinner, her 10th instalment 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 the book's 566 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". --Rebekah Warren

Review:

The multi-faceted surprise ending to the taut, suspenseful plot is the juiciest plum in this can't-put-down novel. (Publishers Weekly)

She is a great storyteller. The totality is a big fat, satisfying book. (Frances Fyfield, Sunday Express)

A compelling mystery,intricately plotted, with multiple twists and a satisfyingly devious finale. George is brilliant at juggling so many motives and so many suspects, keeping the reader enthralled, and coming up with such a clever solution. (Marcel Berlins, The Times)

George's nine best-selling novels of psychological suspense are burnished with the internationalism that is a result of dividing her time between California and London (The Times)

About this edition

• Publisher: Hodder Paperbacks
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 034068884X
• ISBN 13: 9780340688847
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 720