This Body of Death

I am always so excited when Elizabeth George publishes something new in her Inspector Lynley series, and This Body of Death is the latest installment. And I am happy to report that this is probably her best book yet, too!

George's main hero, Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley, is still on compassionate leave from New Scotland Yard after the murder of his wife Helen. A very unlikable woman, Isabelle Ardery, comes in to fill the shoes of Lynley's superior for a while, and she proceeds to ruffle every feather with Lynley's old team that she possibly can. But when a woman is found murdered in a graveyard, Ardery does succeed in bringing Lynley back to work for a while, which greatly improves the team's morale.

Ardery proceeds to botch the murder investigation royally, and manages to marginalize the team she's assigned to. Meanwhile, she assigns Lynley's two main right hands, Barbara Havers and Winston Nkata, to follow up on some leads in a place in Hampshire called the New Forest, where they uncover some extremely germane details, only to have Ardery call them back to London prematurely before they're able to put it all together.

While I do love the character of Thomas Lynley, I primarily read these books because I love love love Barbara Havers. She is by far one of the best-rendered characters in mystery fiction, in my opinion, and I cannot get enough of her. In this book, Ardery takes on Barbara's infamous lack of fashion sense, which leads to a series of comical scenes that had me laughing out loud. But Barbara always maintains her telltale bullheadedness, and once again, as I have come to expect from her, her brains and instincts get the job done, and once more, she saves the day. She is the real hero in this series, as far as I'm concerned.

What really stood out to me in This Body of Death, was George's writing. She has come a long, long way since the debut of this series and her style and use of language has just gotten better and better over the years, with this book being probably the best so far. She is a mistress of not only the mystery novel, but of the English language.

Another thing: the secondary characters in this novel are brilliant. I enjoyed them as much as I did the primary ones, in particular a hilarious psychic who provided some of the greatest comedy George has ever insinuated into her stories.

Definitely a must read if you are an Elizabeth George fan, and I can't recommend this author enough if you haven't read any of her stuff before.