Elizabeth George tackles a highly sensitive topic: female genital mutilation (FGM) and white savior complex in her latest addition to the Linley/Havers series. It was a deeply moving book, even traumatizing at times. It was great to see Deborah St. James return in a central role. I especially loved learning more about Winston Nkata and his family. George’s books always have such strong character development and depth. They are more than mysteries. This is another excellent addition to the series.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read this arc in exchange for an honest review.

Something to Hide is a worthy addition to the Inspector Lynley series, rife with familiar characters as well as a host of others. Central to the story is FGM, female genital mutilation, as practiced by traditional Nigerians who live in contemporary London. Mystery authors who take on such serious and important issues as FGM have to balance the focus on the issue with the development of the mystery, in this case the death of a Black female police detective. It is here where George falters a bit, presenting readers with complications that are not always necessary and with at least one character whom she seems determined to besmear (and who is not the killer). Nonetheless Something to Hide is a very good read and Elizabeth George's many fans will be eager to dive right in.

Appears all the characters even Lynley along with Havers and Nkata have “Something to Hide” in Elizabeth George’s latest Inspector Lynley novel. How each of their hidden and disturbing secrets was exposed and how they all led to a compelling conclusion was quite enthralling.

Thank you to the publisher PENGUIN GROUP Viking and to NetGalley for an eARC.

Hasn’t read this author in a long time so I decided to revisit her. Once I was done I went back to read some of her older titles. It did occur to me throughout that she was. Borrowing a dialogue that she knew nothing about. Zadie Smith she is not. However it was good to see a familiar character play a more prominent role; the issues raised are important although I’m not sure a mystery is the place. I am as you can tell conflicted. I suspect some find the love life of Lynsey interesting but for me I just skim through those sections. I can’t give it a strong recommend; some of her more recent titles were more compelling.

This latest in the Inspector Lynley series this book is another winner. Heavy subject matter at times, uti a treat revisiting the characters.

SOMETHING TO HIDE has the return of the characters that make Elizabeth George’s Inspector Lynley series so engaging. I had more trouble with this installment than previous books. The subject matter relies heavily upon cultural practices that are extraordinarily difficult for Westerners to tolerate: genital mutilation and promised marriage of very young African girls. Despite how well the topic dovetailed with another mystery in the book, I just had a hard time with it. Other readers may not stumble as much as I did. I received my copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

As always, Elizabeth George manages to write about traumatic topics with deep thought, empathy, and compassion in this Lynley novel. A police detective is found dead and Lynley and Havers are on the case. They find out she is involved in a task force dealing with female genital mutilation. Meanwhile, a young man is trying to live between two worlds -with his parents steeped in Nigerian patriarchal traditions and his upbringing in England colliding. When he learns they plan to subject his little sister to the practice of FGM, he knows he has to take drastic action. Meanwhile again, Deborah St. James is working on a photography assignment with Orchid House, a refuge and education hub to combat FGM.

One of the great things about this title is George's sensitivity to white savior complex. She addresses this neatly with the tension between Deborah St. James and the women of Orchid House. She also addresses the pressure felt by women of Nigeria who continue this practice. This book could serve as a great introduction to this topic for people who may not have heard of it, or who are unaware of how damaging the practice actually is. Hopefully it will drive them to check out some resources from women who have undergone the procedure, like the recent memoir The Last Nomad, by Shugri Said Salh.

Something to Hide is a burner of a novel, it starts out slow and measured as you get to know the new characters and as it burns it moves more and more quickly. Love that Lynley is finally making some stark realizations about his personal life. Wish Havers would grow out of the dumb t-shirts, but I guess so does everyone else. Great read for a long weekend.

This is another thought provoking, involved mystery concerning the death of a black police woman in London. At the same time, it is an education in the practice of FMG, female genital mutilation. It also deals with domestic violence. With all this, there is still space and time for some insights into Lynleys relationship with Daidre Trahair.
All in all, a more than satisfying read.

Inspector Lynley is back! I've always read this series, but some later books have not been as entertaining. This one has brought the series back up to standard. I love Barbara Havers

When asked the name of my favorite author, the name Elizabeth George is what first comes to mind. As I said in 2018, reviewing The Punishment She Deserves (5 stars), “I LOVE Elizabeth George, and have been reading the Inspector Lynley novels (or, as I prefer to call them, the Lynley-Havers novels) since the mid-1990s when introduced to them by a fellow librarian when we were stuck in an airport.” There are now 20 or 21 in the series, and Something To Hide is the latest.

I was super excited to get a copy of Something To Hide from Penguin GroupViking and NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. I had no idea what it was about, only that I was being reunited with Inspector Thomas Lynley and Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers — good enough for me!

So, here’s the thing: the Lynley-Havers books always include a cdentral mystery, but there is also a significant amount of character development as well as a focus on a particular topic. The characters have become people we KNOW, so I was happy to have both Thomas and Barbara present in the story. When I began reading, I was in the dark about the topic in this latest book: FGM, or female genital mutilation For anyone unfamiliar with it, you can Google it to get way more information than you probably want, but essentially “Female Genital Mutilation comprises all procedures involving the removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons, as defined by the World Health Organisation (WHO).” Although it is illegal in England, where there are many immigrants (the Pakistani community in particular has been woven into several prior Lynley stories), and it helps to know that FGM is practiced in 31 countries in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.(It’s most prevalent in Djibouti, Egypt, Guinea, and Mali, where 90% or more of women aged 15 to 49 have been subjected to FGM. In this particular story, the focus is on Nigerian women. Although the practice is declining in Nigeria since it was outlawed in 2012, it is still quite common). I’m personally horrified by the practice, particularly the common practice of having it done by people without the proper training or instruments to perform even the simplest surgical procedure, but it is central to this amazing book, and Ms. George covers this sensitive topic without being overly judgmental (hard to do) or getting too clinical — she makes her points where needed.

The initial storyline revolves around the murder of a female police detective who died while participating in a task force in the Nigerian community in North London. Acting Detective Superintendent Thomas Lynley is assigned to the case, and is his usual refined and intelligent self, despite being thrown into cultural issues which have totally been outside his life as a Lord. Both Barbara Havers and Winston Nkata are part of the story, with the Nkata family being a welcome addition to the recurring case of characters in this series.

The question comes up as to whether the murder of the detective was related to her work with the task force, trying to prevent FGM (something she knew a lot about, as she was a victim of it herself). She knows that the “...hideous practice of mutilating girls was not going to end simply because there were people who wanted it to end.” Despite being transferred out and away from the task force, she has continued to explore the situation, but she also has an estranged husband and jealous sister, who may or may not be related to her death. So it takes some digging to find out who might have wanted her dead and why.

A parallel storyline involves a traditional Nigerian immigrant family, which includes parents, a teenage son, and an 8-year old daughter. The domineering father has promised his teenaged son a virgin bride from Nigeria, which the son refuses even though his father has already paid a dowry. But the father isn’t content with marrying off his son, he is also set on recovering the money paid for the bride of his son by promising his young innocent daughter Simisola to be married off as well. It seems that the first step in preparing the child for the marriage is to have her cut in preparation. As Simi’s mother sees it, her intention in arranging the “ceremony” and presenting it as a party was “...to have Simisola made pure so that she could proceed into her womanhood.” EEEEEK!)

The two storylines (the murdered detective and the looming FGM of a sweet 8-year old in a traditional family) converge, as expected. Familiar bits of the story include Barbara resisting the ongoing efforts of Dee Harriman to get Barb into a romantic relationship and Thomas still trying to figure out the relationship between him and Daidre, the independent woman with whom he became involved after his recent relationship with Isabelle Ardrey (the functioning alcoholic he was possibly in love with most recently) failed. Thomas hasn’t had great luck with women, and I hope Ms. George finds someone for him — see, the characters are REAL, we know them and care about them! Their lives have unfolded over 20 books, and although the books in the series can be read as standalones, I really recommend that people read them in order, as the plotlines and personal lives of the characters really do move as the stories go on.

I NEVER reveal spoilers, but both storylines in this one are handled masterfully. Both the murder and the issue of FGM are resolved — or are they? There is an ongoing question as to whether it’s appropriate for outsiders to interfere in culturally significant but horrifying activities that the traditional immigrant families often see as part of their lives. Should these events and practices be subject to attention and regulation from the typically white outsiders, who are often crusaders for ways to advance the inclusion of the immigrants into life in the U.K. ?

I learned a LOT (OK, more than I wanted to know!) about FGM, and enjoyed the opportunity to explore the sensitive topic within the framework of a beautifully written novel with multiple stories to tell. Worth waiting for. Five stars for sure.

Thanks to Viking & NetGalley for providing a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Elizabeth George's books are more like novels replete with character study than mysteries. The mystery is always at the center, but you always get a full plate of other stuff in the form of character development and a deep dive on whatever the attendant topic of the mystery is. This time it's FGM, female genital mutilation, and damn if I didn't learn a lot about the topic (and it's not an easy read, as you might guess). George covers the topic well without pointing fingers and without being overly clinical, and while gently pointing out the devastating effects of the practice. She also touches on the tricky aspects of white saviorhood in areas that are the distinct domain of the Black community in England; that is done with a bit more mob-handedness, but shows that unintentional harm that can come from such situations.

A police officer has died of head trauma after going to the hospital, and it becomes apparent that she was deliberately attacked. A survivor of FGM herself, she was working in the community to prevent the practice, illegal in the UK. Was she killed as a result of her work, which she continued undercover on her own after being transferred out of her department after an affair-gone-wrong with her superior officer? Or was her murder the result of her possibly contentious relationships with her estranged husband or jealous sister?

While that story unfolds, we meet a Nigerian family with a teenage son and an 8 year old daughter and explore its dynamics. The family setup is a traditional one, with the father taking the lead role as head of household in every way, even to the point that he has an entire separate family secondary to the first, and everyone accepts this (it's a shock, but it is what it is). The teenage son is promised a virginal bride from Nigeria, which he refuses after his father has paid the dowry. Then it seems that the father wishes to marry off the 8 year old to get back what was spent on the dowry, and the first step to making that happen is the have the 8 year old cut in preparation.

Naturally, these two stories converge, and, as usual, George marries the storylines expertly. There is a fair amount of Winston Nkata in this story, and we get info on his family (so nice!), as well as a little update on Barb and her continuing efforts to fend off Dee Harriman's efforts to get Barbara coupled off (still? Really? More reasonable storylines for Havers please). Tommy is still Tommy, still seeing Daidre, whose situation is as annoying and complicated as ever. Maybe I repressed the fact of her weird, feral siblings; maybe this is the first we're hearing about them; either way, that whole storyline doesn't work. I think Tommy deserves a real GF after suffering through Isabel Ardery and her functioning alcoholism and Daidre who doesn't seem to want a boyfriend at all, let alone one as attentive and doting as Tommy.

If you can muddle through that mess and get beyond all the odd contractions that are the Elizabeth George trademark (why're, c'n, et al), you're left with a really great story, as we've come to expect from George.

Lynley and his team are investigating the murder of a fellow officer. Teo was found unconscious in her flat and later died of head trauma. There are multiple suspects and the investigation leads to a related case involving female genital mutilation taking place in underground clinics.
The multi-faceted case makes for a fast-paced read with an interesting plot.
George is a master at never letting the personal lives of
recurring characters overwhelm the story.
A perfect balance of plot and personalities.

I've read all of the books in this series, so it was nice to visit with the main characters again. Things don't change much in their lives. This book was, like usual, pretty long and seemed to drag on at times. I did like the conclusion. Not sure if everyone will care for the subject matter. ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair review.

In this continuation of the Inspector Lynley series, Deborah St. James makes a welcome appearance in this installment. While trying to solve the murder of a police detective, they uncover the shadow world of FGM (female genital mutilation) and the cultural associations. This broadens the detectives' cultural perspectives that were previously foreign to them. All the while, the killer evades them lies and superficial cooperation. Definitely, one of the better installments of recent years.