Genres, book reviews and authors

Elizabeth George was born in Ohio on 26th February, 1949 but moved to the San Francisco Bay area when she was 18 months old. She now divides her time between Seattle, Washington and London. She taught English and completed an advanced degree in psychology.

Her first book The Great Deliverance, written in 1988, won the Anthony and Agatha Best First Novel awards in America and received the Grand Prix de Litterature Policiene in France. Well Schooled in Murder won the prestigious German prix for international mystery fiction, the MIMI, in 1990.

There have been fourteen novels and one short story book from 1988 to 2006, each with a completely different storyline.

Most of her books revolve around New Scotland Yard in London but the location of the action is usually in other parts of England and she shows a remarkable insight into the intricacies of village life, which could so easily be misinterpreted, especially by someone who has never lived in that kind of environment.

One of the main attractions of her books is the interaction between her two main characters. Lord Asherton or, as he prefers to be called Tommy Lynley, is a landowner with a large estate in Cornwall and a public school education. Barbara Havers, on the other hand, had a very sketchy education and in the early books is living with her parents, her father is continually on oxygen and her mother has dementia. Barbara’s mother is always planning elaborate holidays that she imagines that she and Barbara can take next year.

Barbara Havers also has a very guilty conscience about a younger brother who had leukemia and who died alone. She always feels that she let him down. A constant reminder of him is the fact that her mother has built a shrine to him in a corner of the sitting room. Perhaps it is not surprising that she has a chip on her shoulder about the aristocracy who never have to worry about making ends meet. She believes that all bluebloods will stick together even to the extent of perverting the course of justice. She has already been teamed with several other Inspectors and they have been less than impressed, mainly by her inability to take orders if she considers that they are incorrect or unnecessary.

Lynley and Havers are as incompatible as it is possible to be. Lynley is always dressed immaculately and Havers looks as though she dressed in the dark, but as their association progresses, Lynley realises that Havers has an instinct about people and becomes more receptive to any suggestions she puts forward. She continues to be aggressive and sometimes insubordinate but she also comes to appreciate the intelligence of her superior officer.

The other regular characters are all friends of Lynley. Simon St. James who badly injured his leg in a car accident, a car being driven by Lynley when they were both drunk, is a pathologist working mainly for the police. There is also Deborah Cotter, the daughter of Simon’s servant-friend and Lady Helen Clyde, who assists Simon in his work.

The novels should be read in the correct order or you will find yourself confused by the relations between these four characters. Simon has always been in love with Deborah but considers that he was not good enough for her because he was several years older than her and he was a ‘cripple’. Deborah was in love with Simon but because he refused to take the relationship further than friendship, she teamed up with Tommy (Lynley) and went as far as planning the wedding but you will have to read the book “Suitable Vengeance” to find out what happened. Helen Clyde apparently had an affair with Simon somewhere along the line, although it didn’t go any further, but they all remained friends.

The warming part of the group is that they all treat Havers as a person they like and trust and often take her part against Lynley when they consider that he is being pig-headed; mainly when the case being investigated contains people of his own class or people he considers his friends.

The beauty of Elizabeth George’s books is that they are all completely different story lines and different locations. The characters can be controversial but you will find that you keep on reading long after you should have been asleep. The solution is never easy to see and if you do work out who the culprit is, you should be very proud of yourself.

A television series has been made called Inspector Lynley Mysteries but you need to disregard the descriptions of the main characters as given in the books because not one of them is as you would have imagined them. Lynley is described as blonde, Havers is far too neat, Deborah should be red headed and Helen very beautiful. Added to that, although the main outline is the same, some of the endings are changed - which is a pity because they were perfect as they were…

Author GM Francis

Audio books available from this Online Audio Bookstore are an instant download and nice just to listen to relaxing in bed.

Her 13th novel “With No-one as Witness” returns us to Havers and Lynley with a serial killer on the loose. Changing her pace in this book, she writes more like Patricia Cornwell, a fast paced novel guaranteed to make you stay up all night to find out what happens and leave you devastated by the end.

Her 14th novel again takes us away from the main characters that tie the series together and into the minds of young London teens. She achingly describes how while thinking he is doing the only thing possible and with the best of motives a child can devastate the lives of so many people. It is the other side of the story to “With No-one as Witness”
This book reads like a Greek tradgedy where you can see the inevitable consequences and only wish you could guide the characters away before disaster strikes. Of course few teens can be guided by adults because they know that as an adult, you understand nothing of the world they live in. It may not explain things satisfactorily but it does explain why.