George returns to plotting a (relatively) straightforward police procedural, after herrecent departures within the Inspector Lynley series (and an editorial pursuit). With No One as Witness was shockingly pivotal; What Came before He Shot Her was tangential; Careless in Red was transitional. Much remains unresolved by the end of This Body of Death, but the dust seems to be settling.
A minor character from Playing for the Ashes is reintroduced in a catalytic role as the Potential New Boss who rubs people the wrong way. I expect she'll be back in subsequent books, but George is often surprising, so I wouldn't bet a whole paycheck on anticipating her plans!
The main story is punctuated by what turns out to be snippets of a (fictional)
psychopathology paper on a subject that eventually comes to reveal George's ongoing fascination with the ways in which the past haunts the present, with (at best) dismaying results.
The mystery is a pretty intricate one, as usual. For about half the book, nobody has any idea about what the murder weapon was. After that's discovered, there are still plenty of twists & turns to occupy the reader. However, as much as I liked reading it, This Body of Death would not be a good starting point for new readers of the series. I recommend going all the way back to A Great Deliverance, which was a superb first novel, but you could probably read any of her first half dozen without missing out on too much of the rich character development offered by the Lynley series.
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