In bestseller George's superlative 21st novel featuring Acting Det. Chief Supt. Thomas Lynley (after 2018's The Punishment She Deserves), Lynley and his team, including Det. Sgt. Barbara Havers, look into a particularly sensitive murder case during a London summer "hot enough... to make an iguana sweat." When an undercover officer who was investigating illegal Nigerian "medical services" offered at a women's health clinic in Hackney is found in a coma in her flat, she's taken to the hospital, where she dies. The autopsy reveals that a blow to her head fractured her skull. No one is in the clear as the case widens and the lies pile up. Everyone has something to hide, including the immigrant Bankole family forcing an arranged marriage on their 18-year-old son, Tanimola, and a horrific surgical procedure on their eight-year-old daughter, Simisola, in order to get a "good bride price." Established fans will be glad to see Lynley's lifelong friends, photographer Deborah St. James and her husband, Simon, lend support. Racism, sexism, class, blackmail, and cultures clash in explosive ways. This is a memorable addition to a series that has aged well and promises more. Agent: Robert Gottlieb, Trident Media Group. (Jan.)

George delivers a fresh installment in her Lynley/Havers procedural series, this one more politically charged than most. "Dominique's white and she thinks white, which is to say most of the time she doesn't think at all because she doesn't have to think. She never thought we might be better off if we hired someone without marshmallow skin, no offence." So says an embittered mixed-race filmmaker who's been paired, much to her disgust, with a White photographer to document life in the Black African and Black British neighborhoods of London. There's a hidden undercurrent to the story, which speaks to George's title: Especially among the Nigerian community, female genital mutilation is widely practiced in order to transform young girls "into vessels of chastity and purity for men." A young Nigerian Briton named Tanimola Bankole is being packed off by his bigamous, bullying father to marry such a "suitable" bride in the homeland; other characters have undergone or are slated to undergo the procedure, carried out in illegal butcher shops in the mews and back alleys of Peckham, Lewisham, and thereabouts. DS Havers is on the case, following the trail of victims with the help of a White reconstructive surgeon and advocate. So is DCS Lynley, flummoxed by the fact that one of his detectives has been murdered after she set to work on the FGM beat--and that a senior officer in the Metropolitan Police seems somehow to be involved in her killing. George's story is too long by a couple of hundred pages, with strands that go pretty much nowhere (that of the photographer being one). Still, for all the cultural sensitivities involved in the premise, she handles the details thoughtfully. Was it a basement butcher who killed the inspector? A senior officer? A disgruntled sibling? Mystery buffs will be pleased that, having followed a winding path strewn with red herrings, they won't be likely to guess at the murderer's identity until the very last pages. A skillfully spun yarn of murder and mayhem, if one that sometimes plods. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

"Abso-bloody-lutely" good! That would be DS Barbara Havers' verdict on this one. The metaphor-mixing detective alternates between red high-tops and leopard-print trainers as she continues to subsist on junk-food fixes from her spacious purse. DI Thomas Lynley, meanwhile, continues in his quest to fill the void left by his wife's death. Havers and Linley are working a case involving a vexing problem within London's Nigerian community: despite having been made illegal in England, the practice of female genital mutilation (FGM) persists. When a female detective on a special FGM task force is murdered, Havers and Lynley investigate, along with DS Winston Nkata. This is the twenty-first entry in the series, following The Punishment She Deserves (2018), and it offers another artful entanglement of multidimensional characters. Alice Nkata, Winston's mother, stands out among the cast and provides a sharp contrast to the rest, most of whom are dysfunctional, each in his or her own way. The ending may not quite surprise the reader, but it is startling even so. A sad conclusion to an unsettling and thoroughly involving narrative.

The 21st Inspector Lynley novel (after The Punishment She Deserves) is another deeply researched and involved police procedural. Acting Chief Inspector Lynley catches a murder case at New Scotland Yard with layers of cultural and political complexity. The victim is a fellow officer and Nigerian immigrant named Teo. She had been working a small task force to prevent crimes against women in her community. She herself was a victim of FGM (female genital mutilation) and was volunteering under an assumed name with a local nonprofit to stop this practice. The secondary story concerns a Nigerian family living on the north side of London. Monifa, the mother, wants to find a medicalized plan for FGM for her young daughter, but her older son intervenes. They then seek help from the organization where Teo had volunteered. Lynley and his partners DS Barbara Havers and DS Winston Nkata work on an investigation that reveals many secrets and lies. VERDICT Highly recommended for the complexity of the story and a return of beloved characters. The amount of research and care shows through the writing.--Kristen Stewart, Pearland Lib., Brazoria Cty. Lib. Syst., TX