"; if(is_file("header.php")) include "header.php"; else include "../header.php"; ?>

Three Cheers for Queen Elizabeth! To paraphrase a popular show, "How does she do that?" By "that" I mean spinn intricate, intelligent, edgy tales with characters that evolve and capture the imagination? This is prose taken to a higher plane, one in which every decision, plot twist or description is another cog in the grand scheme of things. The subjects are depressing - pedophilia and murder - and for the first time a serial killer is introduced. This is not some cheap slash tale but instead a piercing, almost scathing, look at modern England, the results of living without rules or fathers, the state of race relation and the sterility of British society. The author excells in "natural" - as opposed to scripted - conversation. The plot is one of subtle layers, boxes in boxes, a tour de force that intertweaves individuals, relationships and the story into a complex web. She follows a pattern established in earlier books - the main crime serves as the device for revelation of other deep, dark secrets. Her treatment of the lost children of modern society is one of the best - sympathy mixed with hard-headed analysis of consequences. Lynley is his usual emoting self, St. James and Deborah make cameo appearances and Helen...well, let's say that she will not be forgotten. My favorite, Havers, doggedly persists in bucking Scotland Yard even as she battles her own inner demons. The scene with the Bentley not only was perfect but plausible. Each character in the book is presented with all their problems, secrets and hopes. Her portrayal of the pedophiles is judicious, even-handed as we learn that their present was set far in the past through the same abuse they now display. This is far too complex a novel to decipher in a few paragraphs. Needless to say, if you have read an Elizabeth George novel before, this will be your "cup of tea".