Review of "This Body of Death: An Inspector Lynley Mystery" by Elizabeth George

In this 16th book in the 'Inspector Lynley' series, Scotland Yard investigates two crimes: the murder of a toddler by three juvenile delinquents who are soon caught and the murder of a young woman in a London cemetery by an unknown assailant. The book can be read as a standalone but knowledge of the characters is a plus.

*****


Thomas Lynley

Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley, still mourning a sad death, returns to Scotland Yard to help investigate the murder of a woman in a cemetery. His team is supervised by Acting Superintendent Isabelle Ardery, a divorced, pushy, alcoholic micromanager who is anxious to retain the job permanently. Towards this end Ardery makes Lynley, who is talented and popular, her partner in the investigation.


Isabelle Ardery

The female victim is identified as Jemima Hastings, a young woman who suddenly left her home in New Forest in Hampshire, abandoning her cupcake bakery and her lover Gordon - who has since taken up with a new woman. Ardery and Lynley interview Jemima's London acquaintances, including her eccentric landlady, two handsome fellow lodgers, an ice-skating instructor, and a psychic.

Meanwhile, other series regulars, Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers and Detective Sergeant Winston Nkata, are dispatched to New Forest to conduct interviews with Jemima's former boyfriend Gordon and her brother Robbie.


Barbara Havers


Winston Nkata

To add to the melee, Jemima's estranged ex-best friend Meredith, feeling guilty and sad, conducts her own investigation of the murder. Of course Ardery, desperate to close the case, is more anxious to pin the murder on somebody than to investigate properly, and in her haste causes embarrassment to the department and herself.

Some of my favorite parts of the book occur when Barbara Havers, instructed to dress better by Ardery, is assisted in this endeavor by her nine-year-old neighbor Hadiyyah. These scenes are priceless, heart-warming and funny.



George does a masterful job dispensing clues throughout the story and the ending is satisfying, a little surprising, and - in some ways -inevitable. I enjoyed the book.

Rating: 4 stars