Payment in Blood (Inspector Lynley) | Elizabeth George

Payment in Blood (Inspector Lynley) | Elizabeth George | Masterful

books:

Payment in Blood (...

	Payment in Blood (Inspector Lynley) Elizabeth George Bantam, 2007 - 432 pages average customer review:based on 21 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

highly recommended

The career of playwright Joy Sinclair comes to an abrupt end on an isolated estate in the Scottish Highlands when someone drives an eighteen-inch dirk through her neck. Called upon to investigate the case in a country where they have virtually no authority, aristocratic Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley and his partner, Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers, grapple for both a motive and a murderer. Emotions run deep in this highly charged drama, for the list of suspects soon includes Britain?s foremost actress, its most successful theatrical producer, and the woman Lynley loves. He and Havers must tread carefully through the complicated terrain of human relationships while they work to solve a case rooted in the darkest corners of the past and the unexplored regions of the human heart.

for more information click here

Just as Good as Her First Book

Payment in Blood is my 2nd Elizabeth George book but certainly not my last. Besides being a good mystery story, it is also the continuation of Detective Lynley & Havers personal life. While her first novel, A Great Deliverance, focused on the prickly but determined Barbara Havers, this second novel is all about the charming but no less complex partner, Thomas Lynley.

This murder mystery is set in a cold, gray, chilly castle in Scotland where a group of actors and their director are staying so they can work on a play written by the talented writer Joy Sinclair. Unfortunately, Ms. Sinclair is murdered on the very first night of their arrival to the remote castle. A dagger right through her neck, ugh. Scotland Yard is called and all the suspects are locked in a room while Lynley & Havers along with forensic scientist, Simon St. Allcourt gather clues.

What made this story so interesting was the dilema that Detective Lynley faces when it appears that his good friend (aka love interest) Helen Clyde is in the room with the only access to the victim. Is she the killer? Is it the man that she is sleeping with who happens to be the murder victim's cousin. Lynley is conflicted by the desire to protect Helen but also by a burning jealousy to blame her boyfriend. In the pursuit of justice, the lines are a little blurred when Lynley allows this jealousy to get the best of him when he goes after the boyfriend with a vengeance. Is he on the right trail....read Payment in Blood to find out. I can't wait to read her next novel.

for more information click here

Masterful

EG's eye for detail is superb and she deftly weaves a plot of byzantine intricacy against a background of wonderful Scottish scenery and thespian intrigue. So accurate is her narrative that one forgets that it is fiction, and picks up the occasional reference that goes astray - e.g. the Royal Scottish Police helicopter, but that it is truly nit picking. This is a an engaging read that fully entertains and leaves me looking for the next one.

Repeat reading

Rereading this book after several years. Still a great book and much better than the TV version.

An English Country-House Murder

A Scottish estate turned into an elegant country inn, whose first guests are a famous theatrical producer and the stars, writer and director of the new play he is getting ready for the West End: ingredients for a classic English country-house murder mystery, especially when the playwright is found murdered in a locked bedroom. There are several people with immediately obvious motives, and a complex net of relationships among them(the playwright's sister is the lead actor's ex-wife; the producer is the estate owner's sister, and who exactly is the father of his daughter?) But Elizabeth George owes nothing to Agatha Christie, and this is no generic country-house murder mystery. When DI Thomas Lynley and his partner Sgt. Barbara Havers are sent to the scene in a highly irregular decision by their superiors at New Scotland Yard, the playwright's murder appears to have mysterious political implications-or is that a red herring? It certainly has personal implications for DI Lynley, who is unpleasantly surprised to find Lady Helen Clyde among the guests, with a very embarrassing alibi. As the complex plot unfolds, Lynley and Havers view the principal suspect from distinctly different, and clearly class-based, points of view. Thus the issue of social class, which permeates this series, is cleverly interwoven with the elements of the mystery, and the continuing cast of characters continues to be developed.

for more information click here

Literature Lite

Ms. George rarely, if ever, disappoints and this title is no exception. Lynley and Havers are at their contemptuous best while St. James and the ladies Helen and Deborah provide depth and nuance to this classic Brit crime novel.
A fine amalgamation of detective story and literature - just what we've come to expect from the George bibliography.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

products you might be interested in