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jennifer_c_s 's review for:
Just One Evil Act
by Elizabeth George
‘But there’s no real certainty about anything, is there?’
This is the 18th novel to feature Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley, but his role in it is largely secondary. It’s Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers who is caught up in events when her neighbour and friend, Taymullah Azar, has his life is turned upside down. Years ago, Azhar left his wife and two children for his pregnant lover, Angelina Upham. Their daughter Hadiyyah is now aged 9. While Azhar and Hadiyyah have always been together, Angelina’s presence has been intermittent.
Azar returns home one day to find that Angelina and Hadiyyah are gone. There is no note. Azar has few rights: he has no legal relationship with Angelina, and his name does not appear on Hadiyyah’s birth certificate.
Angelina’s removal of Hadiyyah is simply a first step in a convoluted story. Action moves from Britain to Italy, where Hadiyyah disappears a second time. And now there is a formidable cast of characters including: a private investigator with two clever offsiders; Angelina’s Italian lover Lorenzo Mura; an Italian investigator; and a British tabloid reporter that Barbara Havers has involved in a partially successful attempt to get the British police involved.
But it’s Thomas Lynley who is sent to Italy, not Barbara Havers. Here he works with the Italian Inspector Salvatore lo Bianco. Havers is furious about this, but she doesn’t give up. Desperate times apparently call for desperate measures, and it seems likely that Havers will lose her job this time. Havers’s judgment is questionable at times, but it is her not sharing all the information she has and actions she has taken with Lynley that really had me wondering.
It’s a convoluted story with plenty of action, and while it kept me turning pages to try to work out who was doing what and why, some aspects of the ending didn’t really work for me. Still, I will no doubt read the 19th novel (assuming there is one) as I’m keen to see what happens next in the lives of Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley and Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
This is the 18th novel to feature Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley, but his role in it is largely secondary. It’s Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers who is caught up in events when her neighbour and friend, Taymullah Azar, has his life is turned upside down. Years ago, Azhar left his wife and two children for his pregnant lover, Angelina Upham. Their daughter Hadiyyah is now aged 9. While Azhar and Hadiyyah have always been together, Angelina’s presence has been intermittent.
Azar returns home one day to find that Angelina and Hadiyyah are gone. There is no note. Azar has few rights: he has no legal relationship with Angelina, and his name does not appear on Hadiyyah’s birth certificate.
Angelina’s removal of Hadiyyah is simply a first step in a convoluted story. Action moves from Britain to Italy, where Hadiyyah disappears a second time. And now there is a formidable cast of characters including: a private investigator with two clever offsiders; Angelina’s Italian lover Lorenzo Mura; an Italian investigator; and a British tabloid reporter that Barbara Havers has involved in a partially successful attempt to get the British police involved.
But it’s Thomas Lynley who is sent to Italy, not Barbara Havers. Here he works with the Italian Inspector Salvatore lo Bianco. Havers is furious about this, but she doesn’t give up. Desperate times apparently call for desperate measures, and it seems likely that Havers will lose her job this time. Havers’s judgment is questionable at times, but it is her not sharing all the information she has and actions she has taken with Lynley that really had me wondering.
It’s a convoluted story with plenty of action, and while it kept me turning pages to try to work out who was doing what and why, some aspects of the ending didn’t really work for me. Still, I will no doubt read the 19th novel (assuming there is one) as I’m keen to see what happens next in the lives of Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley and Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith