3.5 Stars
When Detective Sergeant Teo Bontempi is taken off life support after falling into a coma, only an autopsy reveals the murderous act that precipitated her death. She’d been working on a special task force within North London’s Nigerian community, and Acting Detective Superintendent Thomas Lynley is assigned to the case, which has far-reaching cultural associations that have nothing to do with life as he knows it. In his pursuit of a killer determined to remain hidden, he’s assisted by Detective Sergeants Barbara Havers and Winston Nkata. They must sort through the lies and the secret lives of people whose superficial cooperation masks the damage they do to one another.
This is the twenty first book in the series & whilst I’ve not read all of them I've read a quite a few & am a fan of Lynley & Havers but I found this book to be too long & it moved at tortoise pace, so much so that I found myself skimming through pages until things happened, I would have preferred a shorter faster paced book, which could easily have been achieved if quite a few unnecessary scenes had been deleted. There were also lots of characters to get my head round & lots of scene setting. So said it was a well written book with, once it warmed up, a good story
My honest review is for a special copy I voluntarily read

It's late July and Deborah St James is at a meeting with Dominique Shaw, Undersecretary for the school system, a representative from the NHS, Mr Oh from Barnardos, someone from Orchid House whose name she didn't catch but would later turn out to be Zawadi and Narissa Cameron, a filmmaker. It follows on from the success of Deborah's book London Voices: the meeting is an exploration of the possibility of the idea behind the book being used to highlight an area which is causing concern in some communities. Deborah's uncertain about quite how successful she could be as the problem seems to occur in Nigerian and Somali communities as she relies on getting the trust of the people she speaks to and photographs.

The Mayville Estate in Dalston, north-east London, is home to the Bankole family. Abeo is the father and he runs various food enterprises where his son, Tanimola (known as Tani) is supposed to work after college but isn't keen on showing up. Monifa is the mother, general dogsbody and peacekeeper when she can manage it. The light and joy of the family is eight-year-old Simisola. When we meet them, eighteen-year-old Tani has been told by his father that he is to go to Nigeria to marry Omorinsola, a guaranteed virgin and from a family of good breeders. Tani's determined that he's not going and not only because of his girlfriend, Sophie Franklin. Abeo's determined he will go - this has cost good money and he will need to recoup it.

Detective Chief Superintendent Mark Phinney is part of a disfunctional family. His brother Paulie (who runs a couple of pawn shops) and wife Eileen are OK but his own home life is dominated by his severely disabled daughter, Lilybet. His wife, Pietra (everyone calls her Pete) is devoted to her, to the extent that nothing much else is important to her. She obviously loves Mark but they haven't had any sort of sex life in years. She encourages him to look elsewhere and knows that he does take advantage of this.

Acting Chief Superintendent Thomas Lynley, DS Barbara Havers and DS Winston Nkata are called in when a Nigerian-born detective sergeant working for the Met is found unconscious in her flat and dies in hospital from her injuries. Teo Bontempi had been found on the floor of her flat by DCS Mark Phinney - she used to be part of his team - and he'd got her to hospital. It's obviously murder but did the cause lie in something she was investigating or in her private life? When she was in Phinney's team she wasn't a team player and that was part of the reason why she was moved.

Oh, but this book is an absolute cracker. I picke dit up, intending to read it over a week or so - it's 640 pages after all - but three days later I finished it in the early hours of the morning with a satisfied sigh. I'll tell you straight away that the ending is stunning: I knew whodunnit but was completely wrong. The finale is so good that I actually found myself understanding the killer if not sympathising with what had been done. It's an in-depth examination of the problems caused by female genital mutilation. It doesn't just happen on the African continent: women who have been cut believe that their daughters need to be cut too, or they will never get a 'good' husband. It's the guarantee of purity and fidelity. It might be against the law to perform the operation but it's still a thriving business in the UK. Some practitioners are better than others: many are simply brutal. Elizabeth George shines a light on what's happening but manages to do it in such a way that the reader understands the why rather than springing to judgement.

It's intelligent, informative writing, backed by a brilliant plot: there's no way that I could give it fewer than five of our Bookbag star. I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy to the Bookbag.

I've just reread Ruth Rendell on the same subject. George is better.

I’d like to thank Hodder & Stoughton and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read ‘Something To Hide’, an Inspector Lynley novel No. 21 written by Elizabeth George, in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

DI Thomas Lynley, DS Barbara Havers and DS Winston Nkata are investigating the death of DS Teo Bontempi from the Metropolitan Police who’s found unconscious in her flat and later dies of her injuries.

Unlike the majority of readers I haven’t really enjoyed ‘Something To Hide’, another thriller where Lynley, Havers and Nkata are involved in investigating a murder. It’s a long time since I last read an Elizabeth George novel, before e-books were invented, so I couldn’t wait to read this latest in the series, and although undoubtedly well-written I found it lacking in excitement and it didn’t grab me as I’d thought it would. Prior to reading this book the description had me believing the main story was the death of DS Teo Bontempi but for me it was the ritual of FGM on young Nigerian girls/women, a subject I’ve found difficult to read about or even understand why it still happens. This thriller is a very long 600 or so pages that I’m sure could have been reduced considerably to make it a shorter and sharper read and wouldn’t have spoiled the story in any way so although I’m glad I was given the chance to read it, it wasn’t an enjoyable experience for me. But this is just my opinion so don’t take my word for it, give it read and make up your own minds.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Hodder & Stoughton for an advance copy of Something to Hide, the twenty first novel to feature Acting Detective Chief Superintendent Thomas Lynley and Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers of the Met.

Lynley and his team are asked to investigate the murder of a Nigerian born detective who was murdered by a blow to the head in her own flat. DS Teo Bontempi had been doing some off the books investigating into illegal cultural practices, so that adds another layer to the investigation.

It is years since I spent time with Lynley and the team. I gave up reading the series as I found Barbara Havers increasingly tiresome and less and less credible- she’s a smart woman, why make her repeat the same mistakes or variations on them in every novel?, but when the opportunity arose to revisit them I took it, to see if time had changed my perspective.

I must admit that I initially baulked when my Kindle estimated a reading time of 15 hours as I wasn’t sure I would have the concentration to see it through, so I just got the head down and took it in bite sized chunks. It is a long novel, maybe not the full 15 hours, and that brings pluses and minuses.

The length of the novel allows the author to give detailed drawings of the characters so the reader gets a really good idea of them and their motivations.. it also allows her to have a wide cast and attack the main theme from various angles, painting a much broader picture of the issues than would normally be the case in crime fiction. Of course, the downside to this is a slow moving plot and a lot of threads to keep up with.

I enjoyed Something to Hide. I found it interesting and the author has the knack for continually hinting at more to come, so I found it moreish without being totally compulsive. I’m not prepared to mention the social issue at the centre of the novel, because the author obviously wants to surprise the reader, but I found it a bit uncomfortable to be reading a white author’s thoughts on a uniquely African activity, which incidentally is horrific. Kudos nonetheless to the author for the depth of her research and some of the cultural nuances she fits in that seem realistic, but I have no way of telling.

I liked that the novel builds up steam as it progresses. The detectives gradually gather the necessary information to build a case, detouring through assorted linked misdemeanours and more serious crimes on their way. At the same time the social issue gets quite tense in terms of the personalities and the potential for violence. Throughout it all there are twists and unexpected turns, culminating in solutions I never saw coming. The author has great command of her plot, if the reader doesn’t mind the odd coincidence or unlikely bout of carelessness. I even came to like Barbara again.

Something to Hide is a good read that I have no hesitation in recommending.

Another great Lynley story from Elizabeth George. Beautiful writing and familiar characters as well as whole array of new ones, make for a great read.

It's been a bit since last I read a Linley mystery and I was very happy to catch up with Thomas, Barbara and the cast of this beloved mystery series.
This is a an excellent mystery that deals with a tragic issue like FGM and I appreciated how the author dealt with this topic.
A complex plot, full of red herrings and twists. You never know who is to be trusted and the parallel plots make it even more complex. I didn't guess the culprit and appreciated the solution.
My only note: there's plenty of information and details. Some editing would have helped and made the story more gripping.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Elizabeth George’s Inspector Lynley books have always been engrossing reads and this new one was no exception. I haven’t read the more recent ones in the series so I was playing a bit of catch up on the characters’ lives. It seems that Lynley has a new love interest but he’s having trouble moving the relationship on to the next stage.
However it is in the mystery sections of the book that the author really excels as she leads the reader on a long journey trying to find out who murdered police officer Téo Bontempi.
This is a long novel which goes into great detail about a theme that is quite difficult to read about, FGM, so it is not for the faint hearted.
I knew little about the subject but it seemed to me that it had been well researched which was helpful as it was central to the plot of the novel.
There are many characters in the book and it was difficult at first to work out how everyone fitted in. Despite this, once the scene was set, I became very invested in their story. I really liked Tani, the 18 year old big brother of the wonderful little girl, Simi. He seems old beyond his years and has many complex decisions to make as he tries to work out how he can best protect his little sister.
This is a long book with many strands and it was difficult to work out how they were going to eventually link up and the murder be resolved. I certainly did not guess the ending and when I thought afterwards about what had happened and the characters’ motivations there were a lot of gray areas and protagonists in the novel.
I liked the sub plot of sergeant Barbara Havers being reluctantly encouraged to look for love by one of her colleagues and the thought of her learning tap dancing provided some light relief in a very serious book.
Sergeant Nkata’s loving home life with his family was also interesting to read about- his mother’s work in her cafe and his father’s bus driving. It proved a real contrast to Tani’s situation which I suspect was the point.
I could not say this was an enjoyable read due to the subject matter but it was compelling and engrossing with some excellent characters so I was keen to get to the end to find out “whodunnit” and to see how Tani and Simi’s impossible family situation could be resolved.
I will certainly be looking out for the next book in the series as I definitely enjoyed finding out how Lynley’ s and Havers’ life had progressed since my last encounter with them.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for my arc.

Another fabulous Lynley mystery from the consistently brilliant Elizabeth George. These books are a joy to any crime fiction lover, intricate and intersecting stories, wonderful characters and a very real feel of England. The returning characters have been developed so well, that you greet them as old friends. Even minor characters are never one dimensional. A true master of detective fiction.

I missed the past few Lynley and Havers books after a character was killed off and loved that I could pick up the series and not feel lost. But this was not my favourite in the series. It felt too much to keep reminding us that Havers is a slob and I didn't like the accent dialects and odd speech patterns that were used for everyone except Lynley. It's great that an issue as important as FGM was at the heart of the book but the characters addressing it felt like caricatures rather than characters with depth. In the end it was just an okay read. Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC.

Thanks Netgalley and the Publisher. I have never read anything from this author before although I have several of her books on the bookcase. I shall certainly be changing that. Fast paced, page turner thriller. I really enjoyed it.

Elizabeth George has done it again !
The main subject of this book is female genital mutilation ( fgm) , which in its nature is hard to read about , but George weaves an outstanding story around this horrid subject.
The calibre of writing is both intelligent and in depth . There are numerous strands that all become interwoven to make an unforgettable read!
Lynley and Havers make the perfect investigation partners , chalk and cheese is an excellent description for them , whilst Winston Nkata finishes the team off perfectly.
I did find some of the book hard to read due to the subject but George is a master at weaving the perfect web of a story and I will be thinking about this book long after reading it.
If you are looking for a light hearted read this book is not for you.

Highly recommended!
Thanks to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton .

This densely textured novel, the 21st in the Inspector Lynley series, is far more than just a police procedural, in fact Lynley (now Acting Chief Superintendent) doesn’t take on the murder case around which the rest of the plot entwines until almost a fifth of the way into the book. Prior to this we learn more of his troubled love life and a great deal about Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). FGM is, of course, illegal, but it still plays a significant role in the culture of the Nigerian population in London. For many it is a necessary proof that a bride to be is ‘clean’ and ‘chaste’. An alternative reason is that it ensures a high ‘bride price’ and maintains the imperative of male domination.
An undercover police offer is investigating a clinic where she believes ‘medical FGM’, that is FGM under anaesthetic, using proper tools and in sterile conditions, is being practiced. That is as opposed to being held down on the kitchen table being sliced with anything reasonably sharp. She calls in a police team to raid the clinic when she sees a woman in traditional costume taking a young girl into the premises. However, nothing untoward is found. We have met this woman, Monifa Bankole, and her eight-year-old daughter, Simisola, earlier in the book, and learned much about the abusive household in which they live, so we know the situation. The undercover officer is subsequently murdered, which is the reason for Lynley and his usual team, Barbara Havers and Winston Ntaka being called in.
These two story lines, the murder and the attempts to protect Simisola from her father’s attempts to have her subjected to FGM, occupy most of the book, but there is also much detail about the background lives of the three police officers, plus several other characters and their actions. The city of London, its size and the range of communities within it, almost forms another character. As usual, Elizabeth George has produced a novel which is extremely well written, contains three-dimensional characters and addresses broader issues. Some readers may find the FGM details, although sensitively handled, a bit too extreme, but they should persevere.
I would like to thank NetGalley, the publishers and the author for providing me with a draft proof copy for the purpose of this review.

Something to Hide is a glittering mosaic of a mystery. It’s also tough, compelling, disturbing and highlights the problems caused when cultures collide.

Policewoman Teo Bontempi has been murdered. She’s been part of an investigation into the sexual mutilation of young girls in London’s Nigerian community. Immigrant society there is patriarchal, as illustrated by the Bankole family. The investigation leads DI Lynley, DS Havers and DS Nkata into unfamiliar territory. They painstakingly identify many suspects, hear alibis, work on timelines looking for a killer who does want to be found for many reasons.

Something to Hide is an outstanding police procedural with richly drawn characters. Lynley and Havers become more real with each book in the series but this is Winston Nkata’s turn to shine. Plots and subplots come at you from so many different angles that you can’t see how it will ever come together but, as always with Elizabeth George, it does. 5 Stars.

Thank you to NetGalley, Hodder and Stoughton and Elizabeth George for this ARC.

Inspector Linley #21

3.5 stars rounded up.

DS Teo Bontempi is working with a task force led by DCD Mark Phinney investigating North Londons Nigerian community. When Teo is murdered Linley, Havers and Nkata have a difficult task ahead to get to the truth about her murder and to ascertain exactly what is going on within the community.

There are quite a lot of plot threads to follow but at the heart of it is the very dark and disturbing topic of FGM. Elizabeth George writes about this with clarity and with skill, leaving the reader with no doubts but she also does this with sensitivity and without judgement. The storyline of Bankole family is a good one and I like how this into connects with the central theme but also somehow personalises it and makes it matter more to the reader. The case the team are investigating is by no means straightforward one as there are personal things in DS Bontempi’s life that really muddy the waters and complicate things. There is a lot of wool pulling, lying, apparent cooperation but less than actual all of which throws the team off their stride. It’s a complex and heartbreaking storyline with many a plot twist and turn. I really like the team led by Linley who after this number of books these characters feel like old friends but you are also invested in their lives and over the years we’ve certainly been on some rollercoasters with them! There’s always a good balance of the personal as well as the investigation and as per usual Linleys life is complicated.

However, over the years of writing these books the author is giving us more and more detail and I’m sorry to say much as I love these books that you do get lost in all the depth. It could’ve easily been cut down by between 100 to 200 pages and not lost plot momentum as there are some superfluous scenes. There are a lot of characters to get your head around too which further complicates things. It takes a long while for the story to warm up as there’s a lot of scene setting.

Overall though, Elizabeth George does write really good stories with excellent characters but I do hope the next one is edited more stringently and we get a more streamlined and faster paced read.

So pleased to meet again all the main characters particularly Barbara Havers in this 704-page-book ! It will be published January 11th, 2022.
Lynley and his team investigate the murder of a police woman who was working on a case linked to women's cutting, a tradition found in Africa to preserve women's purity and chastity. An excellent plot leading to a conclusion I started guessing at towards the end of the story without never being sure! I found interesting to learn about Nigerian culture and traditions through the extensive account of a Nigerian family in London (relevant to the story); I also learned quite a bit about how to sensibilise young girls against circumcisions; and also what always fascinates me is how far a mother goes to protect her children considering the relativity of the concept of protection according to each our upbringing.... Sometimes thought provoking, all way through a compelling read!

Thank you NetGalley for letting me read this novel for free in exchange for an honest review.

While it's always fun to be back in the company of Barbara Havers, Winston Nkata and even Lynley, this is not one of my favourite books in a long-running series. George has taken on an 'issue', that of FGM, but it's not always treated in the most culturally sensitive way, I'm disappointed to say. Add to that huge swathes of filler chapters that don't move the story on, a really unbelievable motive, a huge number of coincidences just to allow Deborah St. James into the story, and all kinds of anomalies such as police officers colluding to hide missing children from their parents... There are also the usual infelicities of English language (who calls their or anyone else's home 'digs'?), and weird dialogue and exposition that no real person would say ('her accent naming the UK as the land of her birth',: since when has an accent 'named' anything? 'they debarked prior to Ealing Broadway': no-one 'debarks' a tube).

It's all the more to George's credit, then, that I still wanted to read this to the end (with some admitted judicious skimming of those extraneous chapters) and that I can still laugh with the main characters as well as be interested in their lives. Dee's match-making for Barbara is a little cartoonish as are Barb's slogan t-shirts and Oxfam-style clothes in a modern Scotland Yard, but I'm hoping this is a slight blip in a series I usually love.

Lynley and Havers have always been one of the best detective duos in crime fiction so it’s heartening to see them return after a gap of four years in Elizabeth’s George latest novel, “Something To Hide”.
The book sees Elizabeth George tell a gripping and visceral story involving the grotesque yet hidden ritual of female genital mutilation (FGM), which is regularly practised in the Nigerian immigrant communities in London. George handles this sensitive subject deftly, creating a classic murder mystery with a modern, brutal twist.
It is not a perfect book; it is probably a hundred pages or so too long and could have used some judicious trimming. There are many scenes that are superfluous. Some characters make baffling decisions and the villain of the piece is a little too broadly drawn, becoming almost like a comic-book villain.
Overall, “Something To Hide” is a strong and often disturbing book, and I’m glad to see Lynley, Havers and the usual recurring characters back in a new novel, but I hope Elizabeth George makes the next instalment a tad more concise.

Elizabeth George has written another page turner.I sat down to read a few pages and read late into the night.Her wonderful characters feel like old friends back to solve another murder.I will be highly recommending.#netgalley #hodderstoughton

I’m badly out of step with the majority of reviewers because didn’t get on with Something To Hide at all, I’m afraid. I found it long-winded, slow and very overdone.

The main story, when we finally get to it, involves Lynley, Havers and Nkata investigating the murder of a fellow detective, which eventually leads to an organisation committing female genital mutilation. This is a very important issue, but I found the storytelling so slow and turgid that I simply couldn’t get into it at all. I’m all for thorough research, a well-painted background and carefully developed characters, but Elizabeth George tells us so much in painstaking (and for me, pain-giving) and repetitive detail I began to skim and didn’t feel I was missing much. I think the book, at 600-odd pages, could have done with some severe editing down.

Others have plainly loved this book, so do read more reviews before being put off by mine, but it wasn’t for me.

(My thanks to Hodder & Stoughton for an ARC via NetGalley.)

I was glued to the pages of this book for days! Like before, Elizabeth George has written a captivating story with well-developed characters, but all of them being so normal, all of them complicated like people are. Passionate, unkind and everything in between,
Plenty of twists and turns in this book, but none of them too far-fetched. Somehow it is not simply about the whodunnit, about solving that puzzle, but about a little girl that might or might not come out of this unharmed.

Good thing the author is writing about young bride's to be and FGM. Not an easy subject, but communicated in a balanced way.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of the book.