I have been reading George for a while and was glad to have Lynley and Havers back as the main characters. If this is the first book someone has read, I recommend going back to a few of her earlier ones (A great deliverance,etc) to get some background on the characters,

It is not badly written and many of the characters are well formed, but it is quite dark and unhappy. I was talking to a fellow bookcrosser about it and we figure that something unpleasant must be going on in her personal life to produce such a story.

Regardless, if someone likes mysteries and suspence novels, they'll likely enjoy this one.