Deception on His Mind

Deception on His Mind is the ninth in American writer Elizabeth George's superb series of British mysteries offers plenty of surprises, the largest of which is that the series' hero thus far, Scotland Yard's aristocratic Thomas Lynley, appears only in chapter 1, allowing his partner, the squat, sour Sgt. Barbara Havers, an investigation all her own. And the story, in which Havers journeys to a seacoast town roiling with racial tension over the murder of a Pakistani immigrant, is one of George's best — an insightful, tense, and compassionate look at two cultures glowering at one another across an abyss. When will the producers of PBS' Mystery! realize what a brilliant mini-series George's novels could make? A