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“Combining the eloquence of P.D. James with a story John Grisham would envy, George serves up a splendid, unsettling novel.”—People
Hailed as the “king of sleaze,” tabloid editor Dennis Luxford is very good at ferreting out the sins and scandals of people in exposed positions. But when he opens an innocuous-looking letter addressed to him, he discovers that someone else excels at it as well. Ten-year-old Charlotte Bowen has been abducted, and if Luxford does not admit publicly to having fathered her, she will die.
But Charlotte’s existence is Luxford’s most fiercely guarded secret, and acknowledging her will throw more than one life in chaos. For Charlotte’s mother, Eve, is one of England’s most high-profile Junior Ministers and quite possibly the next Margaret Thatcher. Eve refuses to let Luxford damage her career by printing the story or calling the police.
As Luxford struggles to find help, another tragedy brings Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley and Sergeant Barbara Havers into the case—one whose tentacles reach from London to the countryside—as the investigators navigate a world of corrupt self-interest in which the sins of parents are visited upon children.
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Creators
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Series
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Publisher
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Release date
May 6, 2008 -
Formats
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Kindle Book
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9780553905489
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9780553905489
- File size: 2379 KB
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Accessibility
Publisher statement (EPUB)
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Summary
Accessibility metadata derived programmatically based on file type.
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Not all of the content will be readable as read aloud speech or dynamic braille.
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Table of contents to all chapters of the text via links.
Additional Information
Color is not the sole means of conveying information
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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Publisher's Weekly
Starred review from March 4, 1996
After seven outings (the last was Playing for the Ashes), upper-crust Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley and his stubby, working-class sergeant, Barbara Havers, have formed a comfortable working relationship, which George plays to perfection here. Ten-year-old Charlotte, daughter of Conservative MP Eve Bowen, is abducted after leaving a weekly music lesson not far from her London home. Dennis Luxford, editor for a tabloid-style, decidedly anti-Conservative newspaper, receives a message threatening Charlotte unless he acknowledges her paternity. Bowen, a rising star in the Home Office, chooses to avoid using the police, knowing that disclosure of her brief, long-ago fling with Luxford will ruin her politically. She agrees with Luxford to ask forensic scientist Simon St. James and his assistant Lady Helen (who is Lynley's lover) to investigate undercover. But soon a murder draws in Scotland Yard, allowing Lynley and Havers to lead a complicated investigation to its electrifying and astonishing conclusion. This absorbing tale, in which retribution for the sins of the parents is exacted from-and by-their children, raises questions of parental love and responsibility on several levels. George's fully developed characters will live with the readers long after the last page is turned. Mystery Guild selection; Literary Guild alternate; BDD Audio. -
Publisher's Weekly
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