The Inspector Lynley Mysteries 3

Picking up where the second set left off, The Inspector Lynley Mysteries 3 box finds Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers (Sharon Small) demoted following her handling of a life-or-death crisis at the end of last season's "Deception On His Mind." Havers is soon brought back into the homicide division, however, when her partner and mentor, Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley (Nathaniel Parker), requests her assistance on a double murder in the entry "In Pursuit of the Proper Sinner." Although one of the victims—the daughter of a retired vice cop—is assumed to have been killed by someone put away by her father, Lynley and Havers' investigation takes them into the seamy underworld of prostitution, looking for answers. The aristocratic Lynley and working class Havers no longer clash as much as they did in the beginning of the series (based, for the most part, on novels by Elizabeth George); rather, they cling more tightly to their relationship as events in their individual lives become more complicated. Collecting four full-length mysteries, the other titles in the set (all also available individually, priced at $19.95 each) include "A Traitor to Memory," which concerns the murder of a woman who disappeared from her family years before, "A Cry for Justice," in which Havers determines that a woman believed to have committed suicide actually met foul play, and "If Wishes Were Horses," in which Lynley discovers that his pregnant psychologist wife might have been romantically involved with a mentor whose death in a car bombing Lynley is investigating. This last tale grows even darker as tragedy threatens both of the most important women in Lynley's life—his spouse and Havers. Talk about a cliffhanger ending. Highly recommended. (T. Keogh)