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Summary: Barbara needs a friend...
Review: ...and right away. She is such a good, warm, funny person, that I can't see why she would have *no* girlfriends. And of course, her situation with romance is just too sad for words. I second others who say E. George is just too cruel to Barbara. I just hope she's winding up for some really fabulous life events to happen to Barbara. Goddess knows she's earned them!Another thought...is it really okay/legal to marry your _first_cousin_ in England? Yikes!
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Summary: A wonderful whodunit book. Keeps you guessing!
Review: This is the first Elizabeth George book that I have read and I did it in a weekend. I loved the fact that it was a complicated plot with complicated characters because it kept me guessing who committed the murder. Other authors would have completed the book earlier and I loved the fact that it kept going and going with twists and turns (like the Energizer bunny!). Still, I can see other reviewers' point that the plot was hard to track, long, and a bit choppy. Also, since I haven't read the rest of the books, Barbara Haver's travails didn't really bother me, but I am curious as to her character development. Therefore, I am going to have to go back and read Ms. George's other books to find out Lynleys and Haver's roots!
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Summary: So unneccesarily complicated! My head is spinning...
Review: I am a big Elizabeth George fan, but this was just to convuluted a plot with characters I couldn't care less about. So much suffering and angst and so many loose ends. And WHY is George so down on Havers? Too many characters, too contrived a plot, nasty overtones and undercurrents. Yuck.... I'm hoping the next one is better.
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Summary: Elizabeth George does it twice as good with In Pursuit...
Review: If you are an Elizabeth George fan you will find her latest Havers-Lynley mystery to be one of her finest. She has expertly woven not one but two murders together, leaving the reader to wonder who is the real target and who the killer. (I have read every single Havers-Lynely mystery and have yet to guess who the murder is, a mark of a truly great mystery writer.) As usual, George's grasp on English culture and language makes you want to expand your vocabulary and take a holiday to Jolly Old England. If you have never read George it is best to start with her first mystery and read in order. Though each book can and does stand well on it's own. It is easier in the long run to follow the history of the main characters DI Barbara Havers and her superiour Thomas Lynley from start to finish. I garauntee if you love mysteries that keep you guessing to the very end, if you love eloquent writing and superb use of vocabulary, you will thoroughly enjoy George. Be forwarned, once you get hooked on Havers and Lynley mysteries you will find you can hardly wait the two years George usually takes to research and write her next novel.
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Summary: George excels at characterization, but...
Review: I have been a tremendous Elizabeth George fan with Well-Schooled in Murder and In the Presence being my favorites. This book is an excellent example of characterization. I really enjoyed getting to know Nkata better. It was a tad long with perhaps too many details about characters who didn't matter. My only real complaint is the treatment of poor Barbara. We're told her front teeth are chipped, she can't manage to dress herself, she wolfs down food, and others call her a cow. I understand she isn't a fashion plate, but couldn't let's give her a break. Ms. George, let's fix her teeth at the very least.
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Summary: Excellent Elizabeth George
Review: When I saw how thick this book was, I decided to read the new Patricia Cornwell first. Well, Cornwell was so boring, it took me twice as long to read as the new George (though In Pursuit of the Proper Sinner IS a tad too long). Only other criticism, does Barbara have to be SO disgusting - and how about toning down that toff Lynley?
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Summary: An over-plotted English mystery with too many suspects.
Review: Ms. George has written a good book but it takes too long to figure how the multiple characters relate to each other much less to follow a logical progression as the case moves from murder to evaluation of suspects to completion. She does plot well.
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Summary: Simply wonderful, despite plot problems.
Review: As usual, I loved Elizabeth George's new novel. Her ability to create and convey characters is second to none and her command of language is suberb. I am a die hard fan and I think that George is probably the best American mystery writer writing today but I still could not give the book five stars (I really wanted to). The book is perfection in every way but plot but, of all literary genres, mystery is the one which (arguably at least) depends most on plot. Given the prologue, the plot is too easy to figure out and unfortunately it is also simply not credible. Why wasn't the item around which everything revolves simply recopied and the original destroyed? (I don't want to say more in case I would be spoiling the book for anyone but once you've read it you'll see that a convincing answer to this question needs to be provided for the plot to work). In any event, I'd still much rather read an Elizabeth George even with a weak plot than just about anything by any other current mystery author.
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Summary: Author is unsympathetic to her own characters
Review: I have read every one of George's books and the mysteries are interesting, but I, too, have had it with her patronizing attitude toward Havers. Havers solves the mystery before Lynley just about every time (more than once the egotistical Lynley has allowed his own obsessions to take over his rational processes), but all she ever gets from the author is criticism--neglecting her senile mother, too fat, overeater, not good looking, slovenly housekeeper, forgets her appointments, insubordinate....and not only that, when she did actually find someone who was interesting to her (a few novels back), he turned out to be a kidnapper. And we are supposed to like Lynley (who is an absolute A** in this book, to his wife, to his friends, to Havers), who provokes the death of a former colleague through his obsessive self-absorption? I found his attitude about Havers' actions in the last book as portrayed here almost unbelievable. Let this be a message to Elizabeth George if she's reading: people who are fat don't always "cram" food into their mouths the way Havers does, and they actually manage to find people who love and care about them in the same way that thin aristocrats do. Thank God. Let's just hope that Lynley and the beautiful but weird Helen never get around to reproducing (how could they bear to give up the attention they focus on feeding their narcissism to their children?). Let's see a return to Deborah and St. James, who have some real problems--infertility, disability--and who seem to do a much better job of dealing with them. Ms. George, you got me interested in these people: now treat them right. Similarly, George could have treated the issue of S-M much more sympathetically; instead, she seems to think that Nicola and the people she serves are sickoes. All in all, extremely disappointing.
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Summary: If you like Lynley/Havers...you'll love this one!!!
Review: Great book, she kept me turning pages!!! I read it in a weekend
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