This is my favorite in the Lynley series after the first one, A Great Deliverance. I didn't find it quite as powerful, that first book in the series moved me to tears. In this one Inspector Thomas Lynley is off on his honeymoon so his partner Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers--who was battered emotionally and physically in her last case--is on her own. And instead of taking the rest Lynley urged on her, Havers heads to Essex where a murder case is setting off racial tensions between English and the immigrant Pakistani community. One involving her neighbors Azhar and his eight-year-old daughter Hiddayah. And involving as well Emily Barlows, an up and coming Detective Inspector heading the case who Havers greatly admires.
I did miss Lynley. I think Havers and Lynley are at their best together. I don't mean that in a shippy way, but that as characters I think they play off each other beautifully. However, even when missing from the action, Lynley has a constant presence in Havers's mind, and it's even more evident in this book than past ones he's had an influence on her--that she's learned from him. On the other hand, Lynley has some baggage--the St Jameses and Helen Clyde--and given I'm none too fond of them, I did find it a bonus that Lynley's absence meant we didn't have to deal with them or the soap opera aspects they bring with them.
And I loved Haddiyah, and what she brings out in Havers. The last 70 pages or so were suspenseful and moving and if you can be proud of a fictional character, well I'm proud of Havers at the end. She's come a long way from the character we met in A Great Deliverance.
