With No One as Witness – Elizabeth George

I have been so completely captivated by Elizabeth George's With No One as Witness recently that it's hard to remember reading anything else before it. It's a big book, with over 600 pages, but not once did I feel that it was dragging or anything – in fact, it was the complete opposite. I loved this book and didn't want it to end at all. It is one of the most engaging pieces of crime fiction that I've read in a long time.

There is a serial killer on the lose in London and Inspector Lynley and his team at the Metropolitan Police are trying to find him without much success. As the body-count increases so does the pressure from both Lynley's superiors and the media. These things are never straightforward though and this story has more twists and turns than you might expect.The pace throughout the book reflects the pressure on the team to find the killer and as a reader you are quickly made to feel like part of the police team working to solve the crime.

One thing I really liked about this book is that I was kept guessing about who the serial killer was right up to the last couple of chapters. Some books seem to feel the need to drop huge clues throughout, but this one didn't (or if it did they were so subtle that I missed them!) and I quite like the fact that I was kept in the dark. A real "whodunit".

It was only when I was a fair way through this book that I suddenly realised that I'd actually already read the follow up, What Came Before He Shot Her, several years back and thoroughly enjoyed that too. I guess this means I'll be looking out for more Elizabeth George books the next time I'm going round the charity shops so that I can find out what else Inspector Lynley has been up to.