August 10, 2015
A threatened transfer to the north of England subdues Det. Sgt. Barbara Havers of London’s Metropolitan Police in bestseller George’s uneven 19th Lynley novel (after 2013’s Just One Evil Act). Barbara’s investigation of the murder of feminist writer Clare Abbott leads her to the writer’s personal assistant, Caroline Goldacre, a middle-aged busybody who verbally abused and threatened Clare. The author sensitively depicts Det. Insp. Thomas Lynley, Barbara’s partner, as he puts his own job on the line to help her. Barbara’s secretary’s efforts to send her
on dates provide some comic relief. Unfortunately, the novel becomes bogged down exploring Caroline’s extensive family problems—divorce, adultery, child abuse, marital squabbles—to the point where readers may begin to worry they have stumbled by mistake into a sprawling family saga. Both the detectives and the mystery recede into the background in an entry that may try the patience of even the most dedicated series fans. Six-city author tour. Agent: Robert Gottlieb, Trident Media Group.
January 25, 2016
Lee has a great narrator’s voice and fine acting skills. The listener easily distinguishes between multiple characters, male and female, and is thoroughly engrossed in the fears, frustrations, and family feuds in George’s mystery. Lee deploys an excellent range of British accents for Insp. Thomas Lynley, Eighth Earl of Asherton, and his sidekick, working-class Sgt. Barbara Havers, as well as sundry friends and enemies. But Havers finds herself in deep trouble with Lynley’s boss (and one-time lover) Isabelle Avery, and she faces possible reassignment to the boonies, and even Lynley has difficulty standing up for her as the case unfolds. Who is to blame for William Goldacre’s suicide? Did Caroline, his mad, meddling mother murder her employer, the famous feminist writer Clare Abbott? Who put the poison in the toothpaste tube? Lee leads us comfortably through all the twists and turns of George’s 19th Lynley/Havers saga. A Viking hardcover.