A Place of Hiding

A Place of Hiding is one of the Elizabeth George Inspector Lynley novels that takes the series off the British mainland and onto Guernsey, where a friend of Deborah St. James has been accused of murder. Lynley appears in the back half. Most of the investigative weight in the front is on Deborah and Simon.

The Channel Islands geography is the pleasure. George handles the wartime history of the German occupation with care. The case involves contested family inheritance, an artist with unfinished business, and the kind of slow social-deduction work that George does as well as anyone in the form. The pace is slower than the early Lynley novels, which is appropriate for what George is trying to do.

Four stars. A solid late-period Lynley. Best for readers familiar with the earlier books. New readers should start with A Great Deliverance.