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![[In the Presence of the Enemy]]( ../images/inthepresenceoftheenemy.gif)
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It's book number eight for Elizabeth George and Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley (aka the eighth Earl of Asherton). Can George sustain the suspense or, like so many mystery writers before her, have she and her aristocratic sleuth overstayed their welcome? Not to worry, with In the Presence of the Enemy, George has delivered what may be her most finely crafted and deliciously intricate tale to date.
Back again are Lynley's gangling, disheveled, and stubbornly working class partner, Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers; his closest friend, forensic scientist Simon Allcourt-St. James; Simon's young photographer wife, Deborah; and his fiancee, the lovely Lady Helen Clyde, who just happens to work with St. James in his laboratory.
It's a kidnapping that begins In the Presence of the Enemy--ten-year-old Charlotte Bowen, daughter of Conservative Junior Minister Eve Bowen, has failed to return home from her piano lesson. A ransom note--"Acknowledge your firstborn child and Charlotte will be freed"--has been delivered to Eve and to Dennis Luxford, editor of a notorious London tabloid, The Source. Charlotte, it seems, was the result of a brief affair that both Eve and Luxford have kept absolutely secret. Or so they thought.
When Eve refuses to call in the police (the revelation of Charlotte's parentage would certainly ruin her hopes of becoming the next Margaret Thatcher), Luxford turns to St. James and Lady Helen for help. Their suspect list is distressingly short-- could it have been the piano teacher? Or perhaps even the IRA?
Eve, who hates Luxford with an unbounding passion, is adamant that her daughter's disappearance is nothing more than a plot by her former lover to raise the circulation of The Source. No amount of pleading can convince Eve (who must have used Medea as a motherhood role model) to allow Luxford to respond to the note's demand and publish the story. When the kidnapper carries out his threat and murders Charlotte, Lynley and Havers are called in to find the killer. This time, suspicion falls on Eve Bowen's political enemies and even on Luxford himself. As the search moves from London to Wiltshire, there's a potential romance for Sergeant Havers and an almost fatal confrontation with a surprising killer who has an even more surprising motive. Quite simply, In the Presence of the Enemy is mystery at it's very best.
Lucinda Dyer is a publicist and freelance writer in Franklin, Tennessee.
©1996, ProMotion, inc.