This Body of Death
An Inspector Lynley mystery No. 16

By Elizabeth George

       The body of Jemima Hastings, a young woman from Hampshire, turns up murdered in a London cemetery. The Metropolitan Police calls in Isabelle Ardery - as temporary department head - to investigate.

Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley is on compassionate leave following the murder of his wife. Ardery , aggressively career minded, raises the hackles of the staff; : Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers, Detective Inspector John Stewart, Winston Nkaka and others. She realizes that if she is to succeed she must have the team on her side. She manages to lure Lynley back from Cornwall to look into the murder case.

The trail leads Lynley with Havers and Nkata to the New Forest where they find that the roots of the murder are buried in a long ago acxt of violence by teenagers.

This is an absorbing crime novel with an intricate plot with and a complex array of motives and evidence. There ois another plot which covers a real- life case : the Balger kidnapping involving the kidnapping and murder of a toddler.