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In the Presence of the Enemy is the eighth
book in the Barbara Havers/Thomas Lynley series (Lynley
and Havers don't need introduction anymore. If you are still
unfamiliar with them, read the review about
A Great Deliverance, the
first of the series). The two main
characters find themselves with another investigation on their hands;
one in which every minute counts
...
Charlotte Bowen, a ten-year-old girl, has gone
missing. She is the daughter of Eve Bowen, a young Tory member of
the British parliament, whose career is on the swift rise. Two notes
are dispatched: one to Eve, and the other to the father of the
child, editor of an influential tabloid; The Source, which
principal goal is, after selling more copies, to bring down the Tory
government.
According to the notes, Dennis Luxford,
married and legitimate father of an eight-year-old boy, must write
the truth about his illegitimate first-born child in the front page
of The Source, or else
Charlotte will die. Indeed, innocent Charlotte happens to be the
product of a loveless but steamy fling between the two political
enemies, eleven years ago, at a conservative meeting.
Eve has hidden the identity of the father's
child from the world and even from Charlotte herself, and now
someone wants the truth to emerge, which
would without a doubt destroy her political career. Since the only other person who knows the truth is
the father himself, she
suspects that he is behind the kidnapping of their daughter,
pursuing a twofold goal: the downfall of her party and a scoop for
his tabloid. Thus, she refuses to call the police and forbids
Luxford to publish the story that is supposed to save Charlotte. Luxford asks Simon Allcourt St-James, forensic
specialist and Lynley's best friend to investigate with discretion.
St James, despite his reticence, accepts for personal reasons...
As with her previous books, Elizabeth George
has constructed her novel around a domineering theme: this time it
is hypocrisy. The introductory sentence, a quotation from John
Milton's Paradise Lost, sets the tone:
For neither man nor angel can discern
Hypocrisy, the only evil that walks
Invisible, except to God alone.
The settings of the stories, the political and
journalistic worlds are of course ideal for the development of this
theme:
Eve Bowen advocates
family values and loyalty to the party while she herself slept with
the enemy and neglects her own daughter. Dennis Luxford runs a newspaper that denounces privileges and wealth
inequalities while he plans to send his son to a prestigious public
school for the elite, where himself was educated. Lynley too,
because of one hypocritical act,
will put in jeopardy two friendships and his prospects of marriage.
Hypocrisies are found in many places, at every page, and of course, at the
heart of the mystery...
As usual, George's novel is a page-turner.
Maybe the fastest-paced of all her novels that I have read so
far, it was enjoyable to the last page. She had
me worried at one point, where I thought that she was taking the
easy way out, which is unlike her, but she avoided the pitfall in
the end. Maybe I was a tad less enthusiastic about this
ending than, say, with that of
the previous book (Playing for
the Ashes), but the fascinating insight into the political and
journalistic milieus made up for it.
As well as an excellent mystery, George has
created very powerful characters, driven and blinded by ambition and
for whom there can finally be only two ways
out: fall or redemption. Eve
Bowen is probably one of the most detestable characters I
have ever met in a book.
This novel confirms once more Elizabeth George
as my favorite mystery writer (and the most consistent: she hasn't
disappointed me so far!)
Rating: 
© Discussing Books, 12/09/2002 |
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