Thomas Lynley, at 34 years of age, is a detective inspector with the CID at New Scotland Yard. He is very good at his job and well respected amongst his peers. And, in this book, that is the start of his troubles. For Thomas Lynley is a peer. He is Lord Asherton, the eighth Earl of Asherton, to be exact. And his presence is commanded by the upper echelon of the Yard when Stuart Rintoul, Lord Stinhurst, sixteenth or seventeenth Earl of Stinhurst, finds himself at the scene of a murder. Lord Stinhurst is a prominent London producer and has contracted with Joy Sinclair, a renowned true crime writer, to write an original play for his troupe, a group that has been working together for almost 20 years. Script approved, Stinhurst has Sinclair, his main troupe and a media writer assemble at his widowed sister’s estate in Scotland. Accompanying the leading lady is her husband/agent. And Stinhurst has brought his wife and spinster daughter. The director has also brought along a guest, the daughter of yet another earl. To complicate matters, the supporting actress is divorced from the lead actor. And she is also the sister of Joy Sinclair. But the sister and Sinclair are estranged, since Sinclair had an affair with the sister’s husband, that leading actor, precipitating their divorce. On top of all this, Sinclair was the fiancée of Stinhurst’s son prior to his death. And let’s not forget the widowed sister, the maid and the handyman. Needless to say, tensions are high in this soap opera.Then Joy Sinclair announces that she has made a few revisions to the script. When the group begins the read-through, they discover very quickly that the “revisions” constitute a full-plot rewrite. Sinclair, with her true crime bent, has altered the original script to expose some very nasty skeletons in the Stinhurst family closet. The read-through devolves into a brawl, after which all parties retreat to parts unknown within the mansion. The next morning Joy Sinclair is found dead, a dirk driven through her neck, skewered to the mattress.Enter Thomas Lynley, ordered to investigate in a jurisdiction in which he has minimal authority and in a jurisdiction that has not officially requested Yard assistance. While this situation confuses Lynley, nothing prepares him for what happens next. Upon arriving at the estate, he finds out that Lady Helen Clyde, one of his closest friends and the woman he has come to love, has spent the night in the room next door to that of the murdered woman, having begged off spending the weekend with him. He then finds out that she is actually spending the weekend with the director of the play, Rhys Davies-Jones.Lynley goes off the rails, betrayed in more ways than one. For the first time in his career, he is determined to force the evidence to fit his needs instead of letting the evidence lead what way it will. And his need is to make that director, that man who slept with Helen, that man whose fingerprints are on one of the keys to Joy Sinclair’s room, the murderer of Joy Sinclair.Elizabeth George has written a mystery that has an entire cast of suspects hating not only the victim but each other. As the sub-plots twist and twine, we are hard pressed to decide just who murdered the woman. But one thing we do know, regardless of the evidence discovered or the theories advanced, is that the director, Rhys Davies-Jones, is not the murderer. He cannot be or the author will have destroyed our main protagonist morally, psychologically and professionally. Lynley simply cannot be allowed to win this fight, not this way. And Barbara Havers, his sergeant, with Simon St. James, are determined to save him from himself, even if they have to lie to him to do it.First published in 1989, with a storyline that occurs in 1988, this book, at the time of this review, exposes us to a 25-year cultural difference. Computers exist in government agencies but only word processors are in private hands. There is no Internet to speed up research nor are there cell phones to ease communication difficulties. And the legal procedures are vastly different than what we experience today. In our current society, no question is too invasive; no privacy is afforded in a murder investigation. But that’s now, not 1989 when this story was written. So when you read Lady Helen’s reactions to Lynley’s very pointed questions at the beginning of the novel, she is not being a drama queen. She is reacting within the cultural norm of her day when women, particularly titled women, were rarely asked about the details of their sex lives in front of witnesses.While the murder mystery itself is both convoluted and masterfully crafted, it is primarily a vehicle for the character growth of Lynley, Havers and Lady Helen. As Lynley and Lady Helen spiral downward into self-recrimination and depression, Havers finds her way upward, past her prejudices and the chip on her shoulder. She becomes the glue and the driving force that saves Lynley from being crushed by the politics of the Yard. And just as Lynley and Lady Helen must choose to face some harsh realities before they can face each other, Havers must choose between her career and her mentor.This paperback edition is 413 pages of small print and tightly spaced lines. That makes it a long read. However, the intellectual and emotional workouts that are fashioned on those pages make it worth the time.
Rating: 3.875* of fiveThe Book Report: Inspectory Thomas Lynley, aka the eighth Earl of Asherton, is a hard-working man, but even he likes a few days' rest after chasing from pillar to post in solving brutal crimes. His rest is denied him by a call from his boss, at home, on a Sunday: A murder has occurred, in Scotland, and *only* Lynley can be trusted to investigate because it involves a famous Peer of the Realm.Uh-oh.Yeah, uh-oh and in spades, as Lynley tromps ill-temperedly up to Scotland where Scotland Yard has no legal standing and no authority and no utility, except in the titled person of Lynley himself. He's quite clearly if subtly warned: Lord Stinhurst, eminence of the London theatrical world, isn't to be troubled about small things like guilt or innocence or such-like plebeian goings-on. He's to be softly and swiftly shuffled out of the line of fire. So what does Lynley do? He brings Sergeant Barbara Havers, well-known to have a classist chip on her shoulder, to assist him, and he allows her a *lot* of leeway to poke and snoop and generally cause discomfort to the comfortable uppercrusties. (I suspect Lynley, were he corporeal, would've worn a small, snarky smile throughout this investigation.)As the investigation proceeds, awful truths come out, lives are ruined, others are altered, and some few are lost; but no one is spared from the terrible cleansing fires of truth. Even those one might wish could be. No bond, no tie, no feeling is safe when Elizabeth George goes to work.My Review: Good stuff. Unless you don't like puzzles or suspense or characters so real you'd swear you have their cell numbers somewhere if you could just find 'em, don't hesitate to start this series!
What do You think about Payment In Blood (1990)?
The good: George seems to have dropped Sergeant Havers' over-the-top behavior, so she's a bit less of a caricature than previously. The plot moved quickly and was very engrossing -- I kept wanting to sneak away from whatever I was doing and read a few more pages of the book.The bad: the characters seemed a bit flatter than in the first book, and while the writing was still very good, it wasn't quite as impressive as in A Great Deliverance -- I didn't have to break out my dictionary once.I think I'm going to zip through this series, but I hope the quality stays up. I know that not every author can be P D James and I can't hold every British crime series up to the standard of the Adam Dalgliesh books, but I'm hoping to find a solid second-place contender.
—Ali
I loved this book from beginning to end. For the record, this is book #2 in the Inspector Lynley series of 18 murder mystery books. The setting was very intriguing to me, and there were multiple subplots developed during the course of the book. Additionally, I loved the interactions among the characters. I enjoyed how Inspector Lynley and Sergeant Barbara Havers interacted as they worked together as it was apparent that they were friends as well as having a professional relationship. At this point I cannot see them ever having a love relationship, but that remains to be seen as I have 16 more books to read. Don't tell me if you know the answer to THAT one!! I also enjoyed the reappearances of St. James and his wife, Deborah in this second book. I hope they are permanent characters in future books. It's really great to enjoy watching the characters develop their personalities as I read the stories. Yes, I am looking forward to book #3 and have ordered it from my local library! Last but not least, I was surprised by the ending.
—Patricia
Good Lord, could a story be any more confusing? •tDo all of the characters have to be having affairs with each other (either in this book, or as part of their back stories)?•tDo in-laws really have sex with each other as much as they do in this novel? •tDo most of these characters have to have 3 or 4 names? I wish the author could have decided whether or not to use their first name, surname, peerage title, or professional title… and then STUCK WITH THAT!If you can keep all these characters straight than you are smarter than I am. I was exhausted after trying to muddle my way through this book. I broke my cardinal rule after 8 chapters, and skipped to the end just to see “who done it”.I am not tempted to read any more of this series.
—Mo
