WITH NO ONE AS WITNESS
Elizabeth George
HarperCollins
Mystery
ISBN: 0060545607

Elizabeth George has ventured into new and exciting territory with the publication of WITH NO ONE AS WITNESS, her latest Thomas Lynley police procedural. This time Lynley is Acting Superintendent due to the attempted murder of Superintendent Malcolm Webberly, his immediate super, who is slowly recovering from his almost fatal injuries. In this role Lynley is confined to an office and must operate under the thumb of Acting Commissioner Sir David Hillier, a megalomaniac who manages to alienate everyone with whom he comes in contact, especially Barbara Havers, who he demoted to Constable. Hillier barely tolerates Lynley and uses every sly ploy he can concoct to undermine him; in a spiteful move he promotes Winston Nkata to Sergeant. "The assistant commissioner's style of command generally existed on the border between Machiavellian and despotic, and rational individuals gave the man a very wide berth."

The story begins in Hillier's office when he calls the team together to inform them that over the past three months four young boys have been kidnapped, tortured, sexually molested, and brutally murdered. "The table … held four sets of photographs. In them four bodies lay … arranged on their backs, with their hands folded high on their chests in the manner of effigies on tombs." Hillier refers to them as A, B, C and D, because they are unnamed and not identified. Unfortunately, too much time passed before anyone realized that all of the murders are related and a serial killer is preying on male adolescents. His MO is to dump the bodies, one at a time, far from their usual "patch" and in different police precincts.

Hillier is a political animal and understands that the press will savage New Scotland Yard, and him especially, for not connecting and reporting these atrocious crimes. He has some devious plans to present to the group. But the ever-outspoken Barbara Havers "raised her head … 'Institutionalized racism. That's what they are going to claim … no one across London --- in any of the stations involved, right? --- even twigged there's a serial killer at work. No one got around to comparing notes. This kid [she raises the photograph of a black youth] might've been reported missing in Peckham. Maybe in Kilburn. Or anywhere. But his body wasn't dumped where he lived and disappeared from, was it, so the rozzers on his home patch called him a runaway, left it at that, and never matched him up to a murder that got reported in another station's patch. Cheap murders, hardly worth investigating, all because of their race. That's what they're going to call the first three when the story gets out. The tabloids, television and radio news, the whole flaming lot.'"

But in his unctuous way AC Hillier smugly replies that all is in hand, and like a carefully rehearsed scene, Winston Nkata walks into the meeting room. The AC welcomes him as if he really liked or cared about the newly named Sergeant. What Hillier is going to do is attempt to turn the lack of coverage back onto the press. He is planning to use Nkata as a token black officer at every press conference he can arrange. "With one parent from Jamaica and the other from the Ivory Coast, Nkata was decidedly, handsomely, and suitably black." He also is nobody's fool and understands what Hillier is doing and calls him on it. Nkata may play along for the sake of the investigation of the murders of black children, but he will determine when and how.

WITH NO ONE AT WITNESS is one of the few books wherein George puts us in the minds of almost all of the series's characters. We learn much about Lynley and how he is adjusting to married life and the pregnancy of his wife, Helen. She is his center. She is his rock. He adores her beyond imagination and the feeling is mutual. We learn more about Barbara Havers and her needs as a woman. She is on an informal probation because she has to learn to obey orders rather than go off into her own plan to solve crimes. Winston Nkata is drawn more fully. His compassion and street smarts come together when he tries to protect a young teenager who he has come to love. Lynley's lifelong friends, Simon St. James and his wife Deborah, are limned with a careful brush that gives readers more confirmation of their raw feelings in times of catastrophe, and their empathy is right on the surface along with their deep devotion to Lynley and Helen.

Away from the Yard is an outreach organization called Colossus. Ulrike Ellis is the director of this place for troubled kids. First they are put through an assessment period, which is more or less an exercise in developing trust; then they have a personal challenge; next is the trip that they plan as a group; and finally when they finish this intake routine they are invited to partake of the many classes Colossus offers.

On their first visit to Colossus, Lynley and Havers get the skivvy from Jack Veness, the receptionist. He tells them, "Trouble is, kids can't wait for the payoff, can they? They want the result but not the process that leads to the result." In this case the process is a commitment --- from learning to read to learning computer basics --- with the hopeful result of the youth developing a sense of themselves and a belief that they have a future beyond the streets. But the two savvy detectives sense foulness at Colossus and keep the entire enterprise high on their radar.

Readers learn a great deal about Ulrike Ellis, the teachers of Colossus, and the boys who frequent it; they all play major roles in the plot. Is Colossus where the killer observes and then picks his victims? Or is Colossus really the sanctuary it purports to be? And what about the staff? They clearly are a strange group of people. Ulrike has an agenda that can only cause trouble for herself and for her charges. The secrets harbored in the hearts of these people are dangerous and pitiless, and their actions resonate like a disease throughout the community.

WITH NO ONE AS WITNESS is a long, complicated, and extraordinarily courageous book, and an intellectual challenge. Themes and sub-themes crisscross throughout the rich narrative. Elizabeth George pushes the envelope as each event unfolds. She offers a palette of shadows and light that will keep readers on the edge of their seats. With her usual aplomb the author transcends the expectations of genre readers and provokes them to think about relationships, love, death, evil, hate, hate crimes, racism, classism, and family. Fans will be shocked at the twists and turns the plot takes. New readers will be motivated to examine her entire body of work --- which is stellar.


   --- Reviewed by Barbara Lipkien Gershenbaum

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