In the Presence of the Enemy

In the Presence of the Enemy - Elizabeth  George Of the eight Lynley novels I've read, I'd rank this third, after the first, A Great Deliverance and the third, Well-Schooled in Murder. Not that I felt that way through Part One, which is almost another book I'd rate much lower--for two reasons. First, that first part involves only that Tiresome Three (tm) Simon and Deborah St. James and Lady Helen Clyde. So not my favorite George characters. Second, and worse, they engage in utterly stupid behavior that's a pet peeve of mine in amateur detective fiction. Charlotte, a ten-year old girl, is kidnapped, and the mother, Eve Bowen, a Member of Parliament, a Junior Minister, and a rising star in the Tories doesn't want the police involved because she fears it would lead to publicity and the exposure of her daughter's paternity--the editor of a tabloid with Labour leanings. So the Tiresome Three go along with with this monstrous mother who acts like she misplaced a file, and don't call in the police. For DAYS. Oh, and when the police are called in and Lynley calls them on their behavior, he's the bad guy who dealt Deborah a "death blow" and once again puts his engagement with Helen in jeopardy. It's all the more maddening because there's no good reason for the St Jameses and Clyde to have gone along with not reporting the crime. They have no particular loyalty personal or political to the people involved who are strangers to them and given their ties and loyalties to people at Scotland Yard they should know better. Finally, after nearly 250 pages, Detectives Thomas Lynley and Barbara Havers do come into the picture, and things do pick up immensely. In fact, I'd say the last hundred pages especially of the book are the most suspenseful I've yet to read from Elizabeth George. There's also a lot more of Detective Constable Winston Nkata in this book--in the last book he has a cameo really, and books before that just mentions. This time he's a supporting player and if this presages more of a role for him from here on end in the Lynley mysteries I'll be glad of it. And Havers. Poor Havers. But she's my favorite character in this series for good reasons. And just as the Tiresome Three demonstrate in this novel why I don't care for them, Havers shows why she's enough to keep me reading this series.