(0060545607), 2005
Suggested by: The List (and I read each book immediately upon release)
My Ratings: 9 Merit, 10 Interest, 10 Fun
First things first: I want to take a point off just for the sheer clunkiness of the title. Secondly, on a personal note, reading about murdered 12-year-olds right now is not exactly enjoyable. Having said that...
WOW! George returns to the characters that I like: Lynley, Havers and Nkata. And yes, this is the book with the Big Twist in it.
A serial killer has struck down 4 boys who were on the verge of sliding into a life of criminality. Sadly, no one really noticed the similarity in the murders until a white boy is killed (the others were all black or mixed-race). The press is on full-frontal attack, and Lynley is forced to work directly on a harried Hilliard, my nominee for Worst Boss of the Year Award for 2005 (so far). Hilliard's stellar persona is summed up in these two orders:
1) Nkata is "promoted" to figurehead minority status and forced to appear at Hilliard's side at press conferences to show that the police aren't racist, andMeanwhile, Barbara is attempting to redeem herself enough to earn back her stripes. She has been busted back to Constable, but her skills are better than that, and she is eventually rewarded with a reposting to Sergeant.
2) an "embedded" tabloid journalist is placed in the incident room to observe and report.
Honestly, though the Big Bad Guy in this book is horrible, there are a lot of truly horrific 'normal' people parading about in this book. It's rather refreshing to see that the police force--with the exception of Hilliard--is portrayed as dedicated and hard-working.
The twist? I'm not spilling. I will say that the end of the book makes one wonder how the series can continue. Lynley's part is going to be substantially different to say the least. Even Havers seems to finally, FINALLY, FINALLY have a big change in her personal situation.
Really a wonderful, well-written and -plotted book about real people.
No comments:
Post a Comment