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april_does_feral_sometimes 's review for:
Deception on His Mind
by Elizabeth George
“Where is the man who has the power and skill
to stem the torrent of a woman’s will?
For if she will she will, you may depend on’t;
and if she won’t she won’t so there’s an end on’t.”
from the pillar erected on the Mount in the Dane John Field in Canterbury
The above is how the ninth Elizabeth George book in the Inspector Lynley/Detective Havers police mysteries begins. While it eventually becomes clear why George used this quote, the novel is about so much more.
Usually, there is a strong current of soap opera drama in these mysteries, but not this time. I think this is the most serious, and perhaps the best, book in the series so far. In any case, I thought it very strong in exploring the theme of prejudice in four areas: sex, race, disfiguring handicaps and religion. Frankly, I was surprised at the level of expertise and even-handed depths with which George explored these areas of her theme.
In the previous book, Lynley’s proposal of marriage to Helen was accepted. He is on his honeymoon and he does not make an appearance in this story. Instead, we readers are treated to a Barbara Havers on her own, supposed on a medical leave recovering from a horrible beating she underwent a few weeks before. Predictably, her boredom leads her to volunteer for an investigation into a murder.
Balford-le-Nez, a seaside town, has seen better days. It is becoming more rundown every year as fewer and fewer tourists come to visit. The business owners who depend on the tourists are trying to put aside most of their personal and competitive animosities and form plans to revive the village’s attractions. Particularly a local old-wealth family, led by matriarch Agatha Shaw, has ideas for a proper English resort without any foreign influences. However, a park has been constructed in the shabby town and it carries a Pakistani name which has inflamed her suspicions and hatred of all things Pakistan. She particularly despises the heavily shrouded women which she occasionally encounters. However, despite the tensions between both races who share the streets of the tourist town, and the accusations of police brutality from activist Muhannad Malik, local rich son of Abram Malik, factory producer of sauces, violence between Pakistanis and whites is minimal.
However, the discovery of a body of a man from Pakistan, Haytham Querashi, in one of the huts on the beach soon brings out into the open the local bigotry and hatreds between the whites and English Pakistanis who have held onto their traditional religious strictures and culture. An antagonistic Muhannad Malik is pushing the local police to find the killer who he believes is a white man. Because of his pugnacious attitudes, the town’s top police boss, Detective Chief Inspector Emily Barlow, may lose her job. She is having a great deal of trouble with her boss, Donald Ferguson, who thinks women are inferior at police work. Havers becomes involved because her neighbor, Taymullarh Azhar, is asked by Malik to help prove the murderer must be white and to use his legal acumen to stop the police from trying to pin the murder on a Pakistani. Havers becomes curious and decides to rent a hotel room in the town to check out the murder. She learns that Barlow is in charge of the case only after she arrives in town. They knew each other at the beginning of their police careers, but Barlow has achieved promotions much more rapidly than Barbara.
The plot thickens when the clues appear to show Querashi was on the beach for a prostitute, and there was evidence he had been meeting a particular one regularly since he arrived in England. Since the purpose of Querashi’s visit was to marry Malik’s sister Sahlah in an arranged marriage, Malik’s family comes under the spotlight of the investigation. Did they murder him for it? Or did the secret lover?
Azhar, to everyone’s surprise, was asked by Malik to help because he actually is related to the Malik family. However, the relationship was severed because of supposed Islamic transgressions committed by Azhar. The crisis brought on by the murder caused Muhanned Malik to contact Azhar, but Azhar’s uncle, factory owner Sayyid Malik, will not even speak directly to Azhar after reluctantly allowing him into his house. Sayyid refuses to recognize Azhar as being alive, and forbids his wife Wardah, daughter Sahlah and daughter-in-law Yumn to see Azhar as a living person.
Rachel Lynn Winfield, who works in a jewelry shop owned by her mother, was born with a birth defect which has severely distorted her face. Despite operations, her face is so disfigured people cannot look at her without discomfort. Sahlah is her best and only friend, but Rachel cannot convince Sahlah to forget about marrying Querashi and move in with her into an apartment. She is very pleased when he turns up dead, thinking Sahlah will now leave her family, but to her shock Sahlah still refuses her offer. Sahlah loves her family and her religion. However, she has a terrible secret, and all she wants from Rachel is a helpful solution to her problem so she can stay with her family. Rachel is determined to force Sahlah to see things differently so they can live together in freedom.
Havers quickly discovers that somehow Querashi’s presence upset a lot of people for a lot of reasons, and she is not so quick to pick out a suspect as her friend Emily who wants to pin the murder on a Pakistan suspect.
This truly is an interesting case.
to stem the torrent of a woman’s will?
For if she will she will, you may depend on’t;
and if she won’t she won’t so there’s an end on’t.”
from the pillar erected on the Mount in the Dane John Field in Canterbury
The above is how the ninth Elizabeth George book in the Inspector Lynley/Detective Havers police mysteries begins. While it eventually becomes clear why George used this quote, the novel is about so much more.
Usually, there is a strong current of soap opera drama in these mysteries, but not this time. I think this is the most serious, and perhaps the best, book in the series so far. In any case, I thought it very strong in exploring the theme of prejudice in four areas: sex, race, disfiguring handicaps and religion. Frankly, I was surprised at the level of expertise and even-handed depths with which George explored these areas of her theme.
In the previous book, Lynley’s proposal of marriage to Helen was accepted. He is on his honeymoon and he does not make an appearance in this story. Instead, we readers are treated to a Barbara Havers on her own, supposed on a medical leave recovering from a horrible beating she underwent a few weeks before. Predictably, her boredom leads her to volunteer for an investigation into a murder.
Balford-le-Nez, a seaside town, has seen better days. It is becoming more rundown every year as fewer and fewer tourists come to visit. The business owners who depend on the tourists are trying to put aside most of their personal and competitive animosities and form plans to revive the village’s attractions. Particularly a local old-wealth family, led by matriarch Agatha Shaw, has ideas for a proper English resort without any foreign influences. However, a park has been constructed in the shabby town and it carries a Pakistani name which has inflamed her suspicions and hatred of all things Pakistan. She particularly despises the heavily shrouded women which she occasionally encounters. However, despite the tensions between both races who share the streets of the tourist town, and the accusations of police brutality from activist Muhannad Malik, local rich son of Abram Malik, factory producer of sauces, violence between Pakistanis and whites is minimal.
However, the discovery of a body of a man from Pakistan, Haytham Querashi, in one of the huts on the beach soon brings out into the open the local bigotry and hatreds between the whites and English Pakistanis who have held onto their traditional religious strictures and culture. An antagonistic Muhannad Malik is pushing the local police to find the killer who he believes is a white man. Because of his pugnacious attitudes, the town’s top police boss, Detective Chief Inspector Emily Barlow, may lose her job. She is having a great deal of trouble with her boss, Donald Ferguson, who thinks women are inferior at police work. Havers becomes involved because her neighbor, Taymullarh Azhar, is asked by Malik to help prove the murderer must be white and to use his legal acumen to stop the police from trying to pin the murder on a Pakistani. Havers becomes curious and decides to rent a hotel room in the town to check out the murder. She learns that Barlow is in charge of the case only after she arrives in town. They knew each other at the beginning of their police careers, but Barlow has achieved promotions much more rapidly than Barbara.
The plot thickens when the clues appear to show Querashi was on the beach for a
Spoiler
homosexual liaison with a maleSpoiler
discover that Querashi was a homosexual andAzhar, to everyone’s surprise, was asked by Malik to help because he actually is related to the Malik family. However, the relationship was severed because of supposed Islamic transgressions committed by Azhar
Spoiler
, having deserted his Pakistani wife and children, an arranged marriage, for another womanSpoiler
They also refuse to believe any ‘taint’ of homosexuality could possibly be the reason why Querashi was murdered, even after the investigation turns up the possibility.Rachel Lynn Winfield, who works in a jewelry shop owned by her mother, was born with a birth defect which has severely distorted her face. Despite operations, her face is so disfigured people cannot look at her without discomfort. Sahlah is her best and only friend, but Rachel cannot convince Sahlah to forget about marrying Querashi and move in with her into an apartment. She is very pleased when he turns up dead, thinking Sahlah will now leave her family, but to her shock Sahlah still refuses her offer. Sahlah loves her family and her religion. However, she has a terrible secret, and all she wants from Rachel is a helpful solution to her problem so she can stay with her family. Rachel is determined to force Sahlah to see things differently so they can live together in freedom.
Havers quickly discovers that somehow Querashi’s presence upset a lot of people for a lot of reasons, and she is not so quick to pick out a suspect as her friend Emily who wants to pin the murder on a Pakistan suspect.
This truly is an interesting case.