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Publisher lost author a star This is a wonderful book by Elizabeth George, and it's just what the legion of Lynley/Havers fans wanted: a richly detailed plot that gives almost all of the regular characters something meaningful to do. I have thought for a long time that Barbara Havers is the best character in mystery fiction -- she carried a book by herself a few years back, and she was fully up to the task -- and this outing is a real treat for Havers fans. Now for the complaint. For reasons I don't understand, the publisher decided to tell us on the book flap that there would be a "devastating tragedy" in the story. That killed much of my enjoyment of the book; I couldn't stop wondering when the tragedy was going to strike, and that in turn made me impatient where ordinarily I would have been enjoying the deliberate pace of the story as the police investigation moved forward. (What the tragedy is going to be is pretty obvious, but again, that's the fault of the publisher's giveaway. The foreshadowing of the tragedy seems extremely obvious, but that's probably because we know something bad is coming.) I would have given this book five stars had it not been for the publisher's spoiler. If Ms. George agreed to the book flap copy, it was a mistake.