Out of his mind with grief after the senseless murder of his wife Helen in What Came Before He Shot Her, Detective Su­per­in­ten­dent Tommy Lynley has been walking along the Cornish coastline for weeks when he stumbles across a dead body. Re­luc­tant­ly, he becomes part of the police in­ves­ti­ga­tion. Half the village seems to have a motive for killing the victim. Old slights and recent fights have festered, pitting family members against each other.

Elizabeth George is noted for the depth of her char­ac­ter­i­za­tion. Even the supporting characters are well-drawn, complex in­di­vid­u­als. But they’re almost uniformly grim and unpleasant people who make bad choices. Aside from the late Helen Lynley, there are few light-hearted cheerful people in George’s books, which can make her books heavy going.

Rec­om­mend­ed.