Just One Evil Act by Elizabeth George
Inspector Lynley plays the back up role as Detective Sargent Barbara Havers gets caught up in the kidnapping of her young friend, Hadiyyah, and the complications of that act. This volume moves back and forth between England and Italy. The small Italian town is a great setting. I did find the use of Italian phrases annoying, but they did lend depth to the setting and the problems Barbara faced not knowing the language. I loved the Italian, Inspector Lo Bianco. He should get his own series.
The Yard by Alex Grecian
This book is dark. We are in London, post Jack the Ripper, and everyone is angry that Scotland Yard couldn’t catch him. Their reputation is on the line again, especially when policemen start getting killed. This is a gritty book, not for the faint of heart. It is a tense page turner with particularly grisly murders.
The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches by Alan Bradley
This delightful sixth book in the Flavia DeLuce series is, I think, the best one so far. Flavia is starting to grow up. I don’t know how Mr. Bradley understands the slow process of maturation in a young girl but it is marvelous to see the subtle ways Flavia is changing in her words and actions. With this book, this series takes a twist I never saw coming, but it promises even more adventures to come.
Raven Black by Ann Cleeves
This book takes place in a very small village in the Shetland Islands. It is very suspenseful, and somewhat dark, showing the negative side of insular living in a small, isolated village. Outsider Jimmy Perez, a detective that grew up in an even smaller island community, heads up the investigation of a dead teenager. Once before in Shetland, a young girl disappeared, never to be found. There was a prime suspect but neither a body nor the proof was ever discovered. Is there a connection? The locals certainly think so, but Detective Perez isn’t so sure. This one kept me guessing right up to the moment of the arrest.