As usual with Elizabeth George, this crime novel starts off slowly but gets more and more suspenseful until you just can't stop reading. The book deals with two difficult topics: Female Genital Mutilation - which, astonishingly, still goes on in Western countries today - and racism. I have to say that I found the solution of the crime quite far-fetched, and the developments in Barbara's and Lynley's love lives not quite fully realized, either. Hence just 4 1/2 stars instead of 5.