In the Presence of the Enemy
by Elizabeth George
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Book Summary Information
Author: Elizabeth GeorgeEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2008-04-15
ISBN: 055338550X
Number of pages: 640
Publisher: Bantam
Book Reviews of In the Presence of the Enemy
Book Review: Made Me a Havers Fan...Finally!
Summary: 5 Stars
I listened to the unabridged audiobook of this story narrated by Davina Porter who was excellent. After starting the Lynley/Havers series backwards with "No One As Witness" (didn't know it was a series) I got a list of titles and began with the first story. Liked Lynley and the other characters from the start but had mixed feelings about Sgt. Barbara Havers. She was a bit overbearing when first introduced and her pairing with Lynley seemed a bit strange but it worked. Their work relationship has grown throughout the series and they are now a great team. Funny as heck at times too! However, Barbara still was a bit annoying at times.In this story, she really comes across as a courageous, heroic and dedicated professional and I was rooting for her all the way. If this had been a movie, I would have been on the edge of my chair towards the end. Must say I never guessed who the villian was and it caught me completely by surprise.Elizabeth George is a terrific writer and has created a very satisfying series filled with complex characters and solid stories. I look forward to reading or listening to the remaining stories and will then look at the TV series based on the books that PBS periodically airs.
Summary of In the Presence of the Enemy
Hailed as the "king of sleaze," tabloid editor Dennis Luxford is used to ferreting out the sins and scandals of people in exposed positions. But when he opens an innocuous-looking letter addressed to him at The Source, he discovers that someone else excels at ferreting out secrets 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 as his child will throw more than one life and career into chaos. Luxford knows that the story of Charlotte's paternity could make him a laughingstock and reveal to his beautiful wife and son the lie he's lived for a decade. Yet it's not only Luxford's reputation that's on the line: it's also the reputation-and career-of Charlotte Bowen's mother. For she is Undersecretary of State for the Home Office, one of the most high-profile Junior Ministers and quite possibly the next Margaret Thatcher.
Knowing that her political future hangs in the balance, Eve Bowen refuses to let Luxford damage her career by printing the story or calling the police. So the editor turns to forensic scientist Simon St. James for help. It's a case that fills St. James with disquiet, however, for none of the players in the drama seem to react the way one would expect.
Then tragedy occurs and New Scotland Yard becomes involved. Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley soon discovers that the case sends tentacles from London into the countryside, and he must simultaneously outfox death as he probes Charlotte Bowen's mysterious disappearance. Meanwhile, his partner Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers, working part of the investigation on her own and hoping to make the coup of her career, may be drawing closer to a grim solution-and to danger-than anyone knows.
In the Presence of the Enemy is a brilliantly insightful and haunting novel of ideals corrupted by self-interest, of the sins of parents visited upon children, and of the masks that hide people from each other-and from themselves.
From the Paperback edition.
In her previous novels, including the bestselling Playing for the Ashes, George has developed the characters of forensic scientist Simon St. James, Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley and Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers to a fine degree. In this, her eighth novel, the secret love child of an ambitious politician and a sleazy tabloid publisher is kidnapped. When Scotland Yard gets involved, Lynley and Havers must elude death as they search for the child and her kidnappers. An insightful and haunting novel of ideals corrupted and retribution visited upon the heads of the innocent.
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