**"Elizabeth George reigns as queen of the mystery genre. The Lynley
books constitute the smartest, most gratifyingly complex and impassioned
mystery series now being published." --Entertainment Weekly
**
One of the most acclaimed entries in Elizabeth George's New York
Times bestselling Inspector Lynley series--a masterfully structured,
multilayered jigsaw puzzle of a mystery rich with intrigue and
atmosphere
On compassionate leave after the murder of his wife, Thomas Lynley is
called back to Scotland Yard when the body of a woman is found stabbed
and abandoned in an isolated London cemetery. His former team welcomes
his return; they don't trust their new department chief, Isabelle
Ardery, whose off-putting manner leaves them on edge. Lynley may be the
sole person who can see beneath his superior officer's hard-as-nails
exterior to a hidden--and compelling--vulnerability.
While Lynley works in London, his former colleagues Barbara Havers and
Winston Nkata follow the murder trail south to the New Forest--a
beautiful and strange place where animals roam free, the long-lost art
of thatching is very much alive, and outsiders are suspect. What they
don't know is that more than one dark secret lurks within the secluded
woodlands, and that their investigation will lead them to an outcome
that is both tragic and shocking.
