This Body of Death

With Thomas Lynley still on compassionate leave following his wife's murder, the Met brings in Isabelle Ardery as his temporary replacement. Her first high-profile case, a body found in a Stoke Newington cemetery, leads her to convince Lynley to return in an advisory role, but the investigation into an old, poisonous act of violence puts Ardery under scrutiny at the same moment she is most eager to prove herself. Elizabeth George's sixteenth Inspector Lynley novel is as much a study of ambition and institutional pressure as it is a mystery.

John Lee brings his exceptional command of the series' large ensemble to this entry, giving Ardery a credible authority that makes her conflict with the fiercely loyal Havers and the reluctant Lynley feel genuinely tense. His narration handles George's long character-driven passages with the same care he gives the procedural elements. At nearly twenty-four hours, this is one of the most substantial entries in the series, and Lee makes every hour earn its place.