Isabelle Ardery manages to get Inspector Lynley back to the New Scotland Yard, by asking him to mentor her in her tryout for Superintendent. He has been gone for 5 months, trying to recover from the untimely death of his pregnant wife Helen by a random shooting. The novel covers two seemingly unrelated murders, the child killers of 2-year-old John Dressel, and the murder of Jemima Hastings. When she is found in an old cemetery, killed by a strange tool embedded in her neck, Barbara Havers, Winston Nkata, Hale, and Stewart's team is tasked with finding the killer, supervised and directed by Isabelle. Jemima has recently left her 2-year relationship with Gordon Jossie, a roof thatcher. She lived with him in a cottage on some land they obtained in the New Forest area of Hampshire which allows the free range of ponies. Her brother Rob Hastings, who is not a physically attractive man, but a very committed and nice one, is one of the people tasked with watching over and caring for the ponies and the land. Meredith was Jemima's best friend for many years until they had a falling out over Jemima's need for a man. She decides to bake Jemima a cake for their joint birthday and begins a quest to deliver it to her, when she finds that Jemima has left for London. Meredith believes in going without a man after her disastrous affair with a married man in London resulting in a pregnancy and birth of Cammie her now 6-year-old daughter. The story ranges from chapters that describe the abduction and murder of John Dressel along with the fate of the three 10 and 11-year-old boys responsible, to the chapters that follow along the story of the murder, and subsequent solving of Jemima Hastings' murder and why it happened. It all begins when Jemima abruptly leaves her 2-year relationship with Gordon Jossie and goes to London. Then the story ranges from London, the site of the murder, and Hampshire where Jemima lived with her lover and opened the Cupcake Queen shop before leaving. I am not a fan of the budding relationship between Lynley and Isabelle, a woman teetering on the brink of becoming an alcoholic. Then there is also the interplay between Barbara Havers and her neighbors, Taymullah Azah and his daughter Hadiyyah. The story is based upon the 1993 murder and abduction of the two-year-old James Bulger from the New Strand Shopping Center in Bootle, Liverpool, by two ten-year-old boys, Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, who served 10 years and then were given new names and jobs and recycled into the community. Elizabeth George is seemingly asking if people can be rehabilitated and returned with a new name and profession into a community unaware of their past and are boys who grew up bullied and abused the only ones to blame for their actions since "Abused children carry abuse forward through time." ( )

Mystery

(2010)This series has become very comfortable with me as I enjoy finding out what is next with Lynley & Havers. This time Havers has to deal with a new chief superintendant Isabelle Ardery who wants to change Havers into a neat and by the book copper. This just doesn't work. Lynley is drawn back to the force for a new case of a murdered girl that ties to a very old case of a child murdered by children. Very good.From Publishers WeeklyStarred Review. Bestseller George's richly rewarding 16th novel to feature Det. Insp. Thomas Lynley (after Careless in Red) offers an intricate plot that will satisfy even jaded fans of psychological suspense. Aggressively career-minded Isabelle Ardery, the new acting superintendent of London's Metropolitan Police, boldly manages to lure Lynley, who's been grieving over his wife's murder, back from Cornwall to look into a murder case. The body of Jemima Hastings, a young woman recently relocated from Hampshire, has turned up in a London cemetery. With suspects in both locales and numerous leads to follow and interviews to conduct, Ardery succeeds in raising the hackles of Det. Sgt. Barbara Havers, Det. Insp. John Stewart, and other members of the investigating team. George tantalizes with glimpses of a horrific earlier murder case; showcases Lynley at his shrewdest, most diplomatic best; and confounds readers with a complex array of evidence, motives, and possible solutions. 6-city author tour. (May)Copyright ? Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.From BooklistRarely can a conventional mystery sustain itself over nearly 650 pages. Some P. D. James novels have been almost that long and have succeeded in maintaining suspense and holding the reader, but this latest from George�acclaimed crime writer and winner of the Anthony Award, Agatha Award, and France's Le Grand Prix de Litt?rature Policire¥fails on both counts. There is a too-leisurely feel throughout, a sense that the author is luxuriating in extra space, and that's not a good fit for suspense. Detective Inspector Lynley returns, still grieving the deaths of his wife and unborn child in Cornwall, but moving forward, assisting New Scotland Yard in an investigation involving a young woman whose body was found in a London cemetery. George intersects this plotline with a real-life case, the Bulger kidnapping, involving the harrowing kidnapping and murder of a toddler by three boys. Reimagining this case, with all the details a novelist can bring to bear, seems in bad taste at best. Except for Inspector Lynley, whose character is always intriguing, the two plots limp along, making little headway. In addition, the new love interest that George provides for Lynley seems contrived. This very bloated effort will interest only George's longtime fans. --Connie Fletcher

Still always bugs me how hard fictional characters find it to be friends and coworkers without so much obvious sexual tension. I do like that Barbara is more or less happy to stay single though, at least. Single women seem oddly uncommon in genre fiction. Still a great series, and hopefully Lynley can get over his grief and get back to being the dignified professional he knows how to be. ( )

I'm finally starting to forgive Elizabeth George for the events of With No One as Witness. I'm still not entirely convinced that I will ever return to my light hearted enjoyment of the series, but she's got her main characters surrounded by misery, as she best likes them to be, so I think there's some stability for now.
Altogether a pretty good read, and Lynley finally starting to be present in the investigation again, hooray. Very convoluted plot on this one. ( )