Rating: 
Summary: Give this one a pass!!!
Review: As an avid fan of Elizabeth George's Inspector Lynley series (see my June 10, 2000 review of "In Pursuit of Proper Sinner"), I pre-ordered the 11th entry of the series and waited anxiously for it to arrive. It is a terrible disappointment--it is very long with a tedious plot--with much first person dialogue of the main character in a journal for his psychiatrist. There is very little new with my favorites--Barbara Havers and Inspector Lynley--and it is the development of these characters that have made the series so successful. There were no other interesting or likable characters in the story to keep your interest. The ending is so unsatisfying I forgot I finished it and thought there was more.If you liked George's earlier novels, you won't miss anything if you skip this one. I hope her future novels return to her winning formula of character development and tight plots.
Rating: 
Summary: intrigue
Review: I read most of the book and really enjoyed most of it. There wasnt many explosions but there was plenty of fizz.
Rating: 
Summary: This fan liked this magnum opus--maybe her best yet
Review: This is a long novel. There are some thicker-LOOKING hardbounds, on my shelf, but they're in bigger type. "Novel length" is sometimes defined to be 60-80,000 words. By my best estimate, "Oliver Twist" is about 170,000 words; "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," 220,000 words; Stephen King's "Insomnia," 300,000. Well, "A Traitor To Memory" tips the scales at 365,000. I can't imagine what the paperback is going to look like. It's taken me almost two weeks to read this book, and I've been spending a lot more of my life reading it than I usually spend in reading. I was immersed in it, loved every minute of it, and I'm at loose ends now that I've finished it and have to return to normal life. It is a very complicated plot with an awful lot of characters. As usual in whodunnits, I am totally unable to keep track of the "puzzle" aspects. So I cannot tell on what page Ellery Queen could have solved the puzzle. What I can say is that, reading it for pleasure--well, actually racing through it because I was continuously desperate to find out what came next--I was gratified at the skill with which Elizabeth George blends the threads and keeps everything comprehensible. I couldn't figure out whodunnit--I never can--but I never had any problems remembering who's who. Not even the guy with three aliases--four if you count his cybersex "handle," TongueMan. The character development is wonderful, and even though the mystery plot requirements mean that many of the characters need to be very unpleasant people, this is brought out gradually. The plot-specific characters seem real, I get involved with them and care about them. My right brain is completely committed to believing they are real long before my left brain notices that they are one-dimensional monsters devised to function as cogs in the plot machine. For whatever reasons Elizabeth George lives in California and chooses to write British mysteries. Being an Anglophile myself I enjoy this, although sometimes it does get a little overdone--you know the sort of thing, "As she listened to the telly, Adele put the Horlick's on the Aga. 'Bollocks, the biscuits have gone missing. Nigel dear, could you pop round to the baker's and fetch some scones?''" In this novel, she has a wonderful American character and, in a wonderful bit of transatlantic cultural virtuosity, gives her a slightly exaggerated Americanism, an American seen through British eyes. I really like Libby, the American in question, and it just wrings my heart to see her becoming involved with that rotten Gideon... Thomas Lynley, Lady Helen, Deborah and Simon St. James make appearances as relatively minor characters; the soap opera among these continuing series characters does get advanced a bit. There's not much about Barbara Havers' personal life in this one; I was hoping to find out how she's getting on with her Pakistani neighbors, especially Haddiyah. On the other hand, we get to know Winston Nkata personally in this one and something seems to be developing between him and one of the mystery-plot characters. I have thought of forming a Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Barbara Havers. In the universe George has created she sometimes seems to be playing the part of Job. But George is merciful to Havers in this book. So many characters in this tragic novel end up disappointed or far worse; by comparison what happens to Barbara seems quite bearable. I'm going to ask my wife to pay attention near the when she reads this, and double-check for me. It does seem as if there are a number of loose threads that are not essential to the plot but that one wishes would be tied up. As the book ends, there are least two characters who I am no absolutely certain whether they are alive or dead. In fact, even at the end I am not absolutely, positively 100% sure that I know whodunnit or what the motive was. I don't think clearer-headed readers will find this a problem, though. It does occur to me that George is one of a number of authors for whom I wish someone would compile an detailed index. You know (just inventing here, no spoilers) Ian Clarke: discovers Celia is pregnant, p. 123; buries secateurs in the garden, p. 146; suspects Denis, p. 156; interviewed by Havers, p. 205; lies to Nkata about photo album, p. 280...
Rating: 
Summary: Not up to Ms. George's usual caliber, but still riveting
Review: I've read all of Elizabeth George's Thomas Lynley/Barbara Havers series, and I must say that this is the weakest of the bunch. One of the aspects that I've always enjoyed in this mystery series is the attention that the author paid to the lives of the two main characters. In A Traitor to Memory, that seems to have flown by the wayside, and Havers and Lynley are given rather slipshod treatment. The small sections devoted to their private lives seem perfunctory and forced. In addition, I felt that the mystery itself wasn't as strong in this novel. The timeline for one character's novel is not in sync with the other chapters, which I found to be quite confusing when I realized what was going on. The ending comes out of nowhere and leaves many questions unanswered, which, in itself isn't a crime, but these questions needed to be answered in order for the book to make sense. Overall though, A Traitor to Memory kept me glued to its pages. Regardless of the book's weaknesses, Ms. George is a fantastic British mystery writer. I look forward to her next book, hoping that she'll take time and care with it, and especially to the BBC adaptation of the first book in her series, to appear on PBS some time in early 2002.
Rating: 
Summary: Great (possible spoilers)
Review: I disagree with those who complain about the length, pace, or style of the plot. I loved this book as much as any of the previous books in the series, only for different reasons. True, it is light on the private lives of the main characters, which I enjoy, but I was totally enthralled my the journal format. Early on, the timeline was confusing, but once I paid attention to difference between the two plotlines the anticipation of how they worked themselves together, if they ever would, completely sucked me in.
Rating:
Summary: Good, but slightly disappointing
Review: I could hardly wait to read the latest in this series, but found myself slightly disappointed. The ending did not make a lot of sense and I wished that there had been more on Lynley and Havers. As always, the book kept me engrossed and guessing to the end, but I was not left as satisfied as I have been in the past.
Rating:
Summary: the
Review: title
Rating:
Summary: Many interesting pages
Review: Over 650 pages by Elizabeth George! What more can one ask for? She's done it again, and I want more! I must know what happened to Webberley and of course to Gideon and Katja! MORE! MORE, NOW!!!
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing & slow
Review: This book would be much better at half its length. I became exasperated by all the repetition, extraneous material, and dragged-out scenes. Some characters, such as Libby, were so tedious and uninteresting that I merely skimmed their passages. The timeline confusion is hard to overcome, and I never figured out where the first scene in the book fit into the story. I give it three stars only because the core mystery is a good one, and the book is, like all of George's work, well-written. The story could be gripping if it weren't buried under a ton of excess words.
Rating:
Summary: Traitor to memory
Review: A confused mess. The only author that can write for 700 pages and keep things moving well is Charles Dickens. This work needed a good editor, after a while I took out a red pen and exercised alot of the mess.
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