Unlike PD James, Ruth Rendall, or Donna Leon, who also write long-running detective serials, Elizabeth George seems to be unable to sustain the quality of her Thomas Lynley series. In With No One as Witness she switches from her typical intimate family murder to a poorly-constructed serial killer tale. And, in a bizarre plot twist that strains credibility past the breaking point, she breaks up her extremely endearing group of long-running characters. The Thomas Lynley - Helen Clyde subplot has been the best and perhaps the most widely-followed continuing side story in mystery fiction since Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane. Why she ended it by killing off Helen smacks of creative breakdown to me; it's very disappointing that she could not have come up with any other way to create new dramatic conflict in her series. I can't recommend this book, nor, by anticipation, any of its sequels. What a disappointment.