Rating: 
Summary: This was a compelling read
Review: I was amazed at just how absorbed I got in this book. George kept me guessing as to whodunnit right to the end and I was amazed at the brilliant ending. The explantion was totally unexpected and yet completely creditable. I loved it all.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent!
Review: I was very impressed with this novel. The ironically unlikely but ultimately well-suited detective team of Thomas Lynley, aristrocratic to the core, and Barbara Havers, from a working class London slum, are really interesting characters. The case that they are asked to solve here has some rather sensational characteristics and is much deeper and more moving than it initially appears. I was impressed with the depth of the story.I decided to read this after reading most of Martha Grimes' novels. Elizabeth George has some similarities, although this is a much darker book than Grimes' Richard Jury books, which have the comic joys of Melrose Plant and Aunt Agatha to warm them up a bit. This is a book that takes a long look into the pain of the human condition.
Rating: 
Summary: good read
Review: I've always been an avid reader, but I've never read mysteries until for some reason about a year ago I started reading them for fun. Mainly the ones I've picked up have been fluff-- a fun way to pass a weekend (Anne George, Diane Mott Davidson, Janet Evanovich). Not that I'm complaining, I've enjoyed them. I picked up "Great Deliverance" purely because it was next to Anne George's southern sisters. Unlike the fluff novels I've been reading, this one has depth, complexity, and a riveting ending--though as others have said, you'll probably figure it out before you get there. Sure, it has its weak points; mainly a tendency toward soap-opera like melodrama (Agatha Christie meets "Dynasty," it occurred to me after one particular overdone scene). And although there is an entire cast of interesting, well-drawn secondary characters, the main ones (Lynley and Havers) are oddly flat--Lynley and Lady Helen, too perfect; Havers, too pathetic. Havers, especially, is very nearly a caricature in some scenes. But still it has far more substance than the other mysteries I've read and I'm looking forward to reading more by this author.
Rating:
Summary: A worthy start to a great mystery series
Review: I've read several of the Lynley/Havers mysteries already, and have loved every one of them. But I've never read this, the first book in the series. Now I have, and I only wish I'd read this one before all the others. I'd never known how Lynley & Havers got together in the first place, or of the details of Lynley's friendship with St. James and his wife, along with Lady Helen. Now that I'm aware, I'll probably go back and re-read those books in the series that I've already read to get a new perspective on the characters. Now, as to the plot - all I can say is, "wow". The same for the writing. Most British mysteries seem to me to be basically the same - a body is found in a small, quaint English village, or sometimes in a city such as London, and the sleuth - whether it's a local constable, a Scotland Yard person, or someone like the redoubtable Miss Marple - comes in and solves the crime. Along the way, we learn a little bit about the eccentricities of the local population. The basic story is much the same here - but Ms. George fleshes the characters out, and makes them appear three-dimensional - and gives us incredible, breath-taking descriptions of the local scenery. Not only that, but her eventual resolution of the story - the reason for the crime, and its effect on both the main and secondary characters - is so intensely real that I wanted this book to continue on after its ending. With Lynley & Havers, that will be possible by reading the other books in the series, but for the other characters, that probably won't be. And I'd like to have seen what happened to them a few weeks or months (or even years) down the road. I found myself hoping that things would work out for all of them. I'm hoping Ms. George will refer back to them in her future novels - even if it's only a few lines; I'd like to know how they're doing.
Rating: 
Summary: As good as P D James? Please!
Review: If you pick up a paperback copy of this novel in which the first few pages or back cover are littered with glowing review extracts (like I did), don't be taken in by comparisons of Elizabeth George to P D James, Ruth Rendell, and other real English mystery writers. First off, Ms George obviously isn't English. Her strained attempts to produce 'authentic' English dialogue and class characteristics became increasingly irritating as I ground my way through the tedious and ridiculously contrived scenes bringing together Lynley and St James. Her anglo-syncophantic depictions of the american couple at the inn also annoyed me, as they added nothing to the plot and seemed thrown in only to try to build up English 'street cred'. Such foibles can be tolerated in a mystery, of course, if the important characters--the investigators, and of course the potential killers--are strikingly drawn. Lynley is a relatively sympathetic protagonist, but from there on George's characters are one-dimensional and ultimately uninteresting stereotypes. Many of them seem created simply to serve as crude vehicles for overwrought emotional reactions to nasty people and events--Jonah, Gillian's husband, being a prime example. Even Havers, Lynley's partner, is no more than a collection of environmental motivations packaged in a tub of resentments and insecurities. In other words, there's no character here, just badly-assembled characteristics. Finally, I realize this book was written in the 80s, but (warning: spoilers approaching) the ultimate villain's twisted-religious/sexually-deviant brand of evil has become a commonplace in contemporary mysteries, thrillers and psycho-dramas. I suppose it might have been more shocking to read this sort of story ten years ago, but even then I doubt it. George can manufacture hysteria, but she's no good at depicting either the tortured banality of real evil nor the complexity of real people's reactions to it. If you're a mystery fan and have reread your P D James collection too recently to revisit, I suggest you look for a better substitute than Elizabeth George.
Rating:
Summary: George Genre: The English Mystery/Romance Novel
Review: In both journalistic criticism and dust-jacket propaganda, Elizabeth George is often compared with P.D. James. Although probably not fair to James, I would suggest that George is a combination of James and Barbara Cartland. Like James, she sets up a complicated murder mystery, usually full of blood and gore, throws in a half-dozen red herrings and some nicely-researched detail. Then, she adds a few amazingly adept detectives (one of whom drives a Bentley and another who lives in London's slums) and some perfectly gorgeous girlfriends. Okay, I can stretch my imagination to believe that Lynley, the Earl of something, who wears hand-tailored clothing, has a manservant, and is handsome, debonair AND warm-hearted is partnered with the chubby, crabby, and churlish Havers. But, when George slips into her Cartland mode and has Lynley fall passionately in love with an 18-year old girl, follow her to American where she "becomes" pregnant, and almost lose his mind when she marries his best friend (also 10 or 12 years her senior), I begin to think I've accidentally picked up another book. George's Cartland-esque prose in the Lynley/Lady Helen/Allcourt-St.James/Deborah quadrangle is laughable with phrases similar to "Deborah's tawny, tangled curls tumbled tantalizingly across her face before he could see her lovely eyes darken with desire. Geez, where did that come from? Weren't we just talking about forensic science and possible murder suspects. Like the romance novel, George draws her male characters, mostly referred to by their last names, as rich, educated, brilliant, strong, attractive, and afflicted with nobless oblige. Their female counterparts, usually called by their first names, are young, beautiful, alluring, educated, talented, weepy, moue-ing, passive-aggressive in dealing with their men ... and are great hostesses. I guess George has succeeded in creating the "new" English mystery by combining it with a romance novel format. Unlike James, she doesn't leave us wondering about her protagonist's private lives, she gives it to us full throttle. Maybe James could give us more personal information about her heroes, but I could do with a little less about George's.
Rating:
Summary: Why All the Fuss?
Review: It is difficult to understand why this novel was voted one of the 100 Favorite Mysteries of the Century by the online members of the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association. The plot is hackneyed, the writing average, and the characters predictable. There are several literary references along the way (mostly Shakespeare), explained by the author in case the reader is too illiterate to know their source. She also indulges in some of the most overwrought metaphors I've come across in a long time. As an American trying to affect the tone of being British, George annoyingly uses "upon" instead of "on" and "about" instead of "around" so often, it becomes a detriment of the rhythm of the text.
The best I can say for the book is "much ado about nothing."
Rating:
Summary: Amazingly well-written
Review: It would be impossible for me to rave enough about the works of Elizabeth George. This novel is just the latest in a series of masterpieces. However, I feel it is important for the new Elizabeth George reader to begin with the first book in the series. Each successive novel adds to the rich characterizations of these folks I have learned to care about. It is a rare author indeed who can make me care about those characters before the next installment arrives. So, go get the entire series, but don't do it if you have other things to do; you will be unable to stop for mundane things like sleeping, eating, working, or walking the dog.
Rating:
Summary: A Banquet of words
Review: It's been nearly five years since I read this and it still sits vividly in my mind. If the word 'epic' ever applied to a mystery novel, this author wrote it. Ms. George's ability to make the reader see the world from the viewpoints of her creations surprises and delights. Her characters are wonderful, deep and broad and full of personality as well as personality quirks. Even the ones to whom you may feel antipathy in the beginning win you over in the end. The book combines the 'cosy' and hard-edged mystery styles beautifully. The descriptions are delicious, almost enough to make you lick the pages. Treat yourself to this one and to her succeeding novels starring Lynley and Havers. Eminently satisfying.
Rating:
Summary: A Banquet of words
Review: It's been nearly five years since I read this and it still sits vividly in my mind. If the word 'epic' ever applied to a mystery novel, this author wrote it. Ms. George's ability to make the reader see the world from the viewpoints of her creations surprises and delights. Her characters are wonderful, deep and broad and full of personality as well as personality quirks. Even the ones to whom you may feel antipathy in the beginning win you over in the end. The book combines the 'cosy' and hard-edged mystery styles beautifully. The descriptions are delicious, almost enough to make you lick the pages. Treat yourself to this one and to her succeeding novels starring Lynley and Havers. Eminently satisfying.
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