““In England the term “the Ashes” signifies victory in test cricket (cricket played at the national level) against Australia.””The preceding quote is from the book. However, if you, gentle reader, are thinking, “I bet actually the title of this mystery genre novel is a sly double entrende about a dead body” you are right! The only thing this book has to do with game of cricket is that one of the characters is a star cricket player. But if you really are a fan of cricket and are expecting a game in these pages at some point, you will be very very disappointed in this book.Readers who are fans of hothouse mysteries - which is what I call mysteries that tend to have a lot of doomed romances, diva performances and extreme angst along with murders and mystery - will find a lot to like in “Playing for the Ashes”. These hothouse plots do tend to lean to the chick-lit side of the scale, but they still are very entertaining for everyone, in my humble opinion. Both sexes are well represented as heroes or bad guys, the action is dark and deadly and briefly graphic, and it is difficult to quit reading at any point for the last 100 pages because the suspense of not knowing how it ends will drive the reader into missing work or staying up all night.In this novel I could not guess who the murderer was, so I was in suspense throughout. I was highly entertained by the operatic plot. Best of all, one of the protagonists was a disgusting person who I would swear was an antisocial personality if she had been a real person, or at least an incredibly immature selfish ninny at best, so I felt free to despise her to my heart’s content, as well as feel superior in every way. What more can any neurotic shy damaged nerdy bookworm with no life such as myself need for temporary validation? I highly recommend this book.The character who provided me with so much positive and elevated self-regard was Olivia. Her part in the book was to Live Large as a young adult going on 4 years old. She chooses a life as a drug addict and a prostitute to destroy her parents, who really are very sweet, but for some reason Olivia can’t seem to see them as regular people because they are wealthy and a bit conventional and they want to enjoy an expanded and worthy social life. Everything they do, especially her mother, Olivia misreads as hate, vengeance and abusive control. She can’t seem to like or love them, no matter how benign or ordinary they live their lives or what their expectations are for their daughter. Personally, I think she simply has a horror of being controlled so strong that she can’t accept any kind of critical suggestion, much less a parental directive, so that being told it’s time for bed would have been enough to send Olivia into a room-breaking tantrum. Olivia also has a form of jealousy which is world-destroying, and a blinkered overly personalized view of why people expect her to follow directives and set goals. She writes a diary in alternating chapters about her life which shows how bent her viewpoint is, but I suspect some inexperienced or youthful readers may not see that she overreacts to the world, misreads simple criticism as dislike or hate, and is obviously too self-centered to understand her self-destruction is only important to her family but there is a big world out there that she could have chosen to enjoy on her own. Those of us who have known people like her will recognize the extreme diva mentality who think it’s all about them, no matter what the situation. Thankfully, only a few children, and I’ve known some, will go on to this kind of extreme self-degradation to punish a normal parent (it’s always been a parent in my real experience). In real life, usually normal parents do not entirely blame themselves, but when they do, many have the maturity to recognize, parental guilt or not, that the self-destruction punishes the child more than the parent. Setting oneself on fire because you hated eating Brussels sprouts once a week, or doing homework, can be kinda wasteful of one’s life. At some point, the recognition that living well is the best revenge one can have, if revenge is the point, but actually simply living well for oneself is nice, revenge or not. There was a 4 year old I knew who used the technique of holding his breath to punish anyone who tried to make him do something or did not buy him a toy he wanted. Of course, any sane adult would understand: 1. if he did hold his breath long enough to pass out he would not die but he might bring relief to everyone by being quiet for awhile. 2. he would start breathing automatically again if he succeeded in holding his breath until he passed out. 3. he is an idiot child. Olivia was this kind of person. Boy, did I have fun dissing Olivia every time it was her turn to vent and practice the kind of self-destruction which is meant to rub other people noses in their guilt, but instead results in everyone wondering about that individual’s maturity or sanity, or in my case, thinking, “too stupid to live”. Actually, this is the 7th book in the Lynley/Havers mystery series. There is a convoluted plot, a mystery, a murder, tons of characters who could have done the murder, and of course, Thomas Lynley and Barbara Havers, English CID police officers. Since you really should read this series in order (the personal lives of Lynley and Havers are actually at the forefront of the action in almost every one of these novels, as are the distraught self-immolating suspects), the emotional level might be reduced because a reader beginning with the newer books will, in my opinion, not receive the full blast of emo crazy Elizabeth George injects into each and every book in the series. Of course, if emo crazy annoys the crap out of you in the first place, you won’t like this series anyway. These books also explore realistically, despite the over-the-top self-destruction in each and every character’s life in each book, the emotional devastation that making and living with bad choices brings. I do not find each single instance of coming undone in these novels hard to believe, but the author does not do nuances. ALL of her characters tend to be in their heads as if they were still hormonal high school teens all of the time. I think for most of us readers, we have a friend, relative or acquaintance who did something like a George character once or twice, or we ourselves had a bad time once or twice. George likes to give readers their money’s worth by making sure EVERY character is screwing up really really bad.The writing is almost literary, but everything is too spelled out for the reader to be actually a literary read. Like I mentioned, I didn’t think it unreal, and I think George knows her emotionally impoverished families. Nobody is exactly polished or civilized, even when they are aristocrats. When I finished this novel, as I also did in finishing the previous books in the series, I felt satisfactorily sated with having lived within every character’s inner trailer-trash.So much fun!
Seventh in the Inspector Lynley mystery series set in modern-day London.The StoryThe title is a play on a particular cricket game, The Ashes, traditionally played between England and Australia. The fact that this particular cricketeer died from carbon monoxide in a house fire…well, I'll leave it to you to judge as to how much of a play the title is.Kenneth Fleming is the center around whom everyone involved pivots when he is found dead in a cottage owned by Miriam Whitelaw, his teacher, most fervent supporter, and eventual best friend. Only he is supposed to be on a flight to Greece with his about-to-be 16-year-old son, Jimmy, for a boating holiday. Georgina, the woman he intends to marry, is the expected occupant of the cottage. Most of the story is a buildup of the supporting characters. Jimmy, Kenneth's son, is a tearaway whom everyone is expecting to end up in jail. He is so angry with his father for leaving his family and promising the moon, which he never delivers, that he would happily kill his father. Jeannie has been with Ken since she was 12-years-old; they married when Jimmy was on the way and she was 16 and these last four years have been devastating for her although Ken does seem to find his way back into her bed some three times a week! Things take a turn for the worse though when Kenneth hand delivers the divorce papers right after which he takes her up to bed. Is it a coincidence that the day Ken dies is the same day upon which Jeannie is supposed to respond to his request for a divorce?Georgina is Ken's current love—the woman for whom he plans to divorce Jean.Olivia has been the typical wild child and the primary spoke of the wheel as it's her viewpoint and evidence that is the "attacking shot". She's hated her mother, Miriam, for years for caring more for everyone else than her own family, but, especially for Kenny. It doesn't help that Miriam just has to manipulate everyone into doing what she thinks is best—Jeannie can testify to this as Miriam never feels anyone is good enough for Ken and causes or creates most of the estrangement between him and Jeannie. Embracing the equal opportunity tenets, Miriam pulls the same stunt with Georgina.Between them, Miriam and Olivia managed to destroy any possible relationship until Livie has no other choice when she is struck down by ALS. Livie has too much pride to continue to saddle Chris with her care especially when she knows he wants Amanda and not her. And home is, after all, where they have to take you in when you knock. I do like Chris in this story…I too want to live on a barge and the fact that he is an architect specializing in remodeling old homes is just too heavenly. His involvement with the animal rescue group adds a frisson of fear for both himself and Olivia when Lynley comes to call.Then there's Detective Inspector Lynley playing the press and getting in hot water for it with his superiors at the Yard. Sir David is just itching to take him down and Sergeant Havers may go down with him. A positive note for Barbara. She's made her first friend at Chalk Farm; it'll be interesting to watch this develop. Sir David is not the only policeman Lynley is jerking around. Maidstone's Detective Inspector Isabelle Ardery is finding Lynley rather tyrannical in their so-called equal partnership.My TakeExcellent as always. George is rather scary in some ways with how impossible it seems to solve the crime that occurs and yet she lays it out for us in such a logical manner that it all makes sense in the end even as she points the finger from one person to another after another.Peeking at some of other reviews for this particular story, yes, I'd agree that George weighted the story down with in-depth analyses of the other characters that weren't necessary such as Mollinson…but, it was so very fascinating to read her fully-fleshed characters.
What do You think about Playing For The Ashes (1994)?
Elizabeth George is back in form after a bobble in the last book, Missing Joseph. Playing for the Ashes is a great mystery set against the gritty and sometimes graphic world of modern-day police work, a poignant relationship between an animal-rescue activist and a former (if not exactly reformed) prostitute, a woman who is like a black widow manipulating the creatures in her web while retaining some sympathetic qualities, and of all things English, cricket. The developing characters and relationships of Inspector Thomas Lynley and especially the new openings in Sergeant Barbara Havers' life are a delight. Plot well done--George never makes her red herrings obvious and keeps you guessing as to whodunit longer than most writers. And bravo for not "punishing" one of the protagonists with the obvious disease that could have followed from the person's choices (you'll have to read the book to see what that means). Good to see the series back on track.
—Lisa
At first I was really annoyed by the portion of the book given over to Olivia's narrative, because it seemed unconnected and unnecessary and I felt like it was just making the book much longer than it should've been. But then by the end, the connection was clear and I understood the parallels that George was drawing between the various story lines.One minor criticism, though, was that Havers seemed a bit overly dense in this book -- normally I feel like she may not have the insights that Lynley does but that she can keep up and be quite useful to the case. She felt much more like a supporting character in this book, though, and even a bit of a foil for Lynley, as a way to highlight his brilliance. It was kind of annoying.I am kind of intrigued with the way that George is handling time in the books, though. There doesn't seem to be very long between cases, but as the technology changes, she just writes it into the books as if it were natural. So that even though I'm on book 7 of the series and I doubt more than a year or two has passed since the first one in book-time, we now have car phones and answering machines, which weren't around when she first started writing.
—Ali
Ken Fleming, England's cricket superstar, has died in a fire in Kent. Since the fire is determined to be arson, and several persons of interest are in London, Inspector Lynley is asked to the local inspector. Meanwhile Olivia Whitelaw, long estranged from her family, and suffering from ALS begins a journal explaining the estrangement as well as the dilemmas facing her about her future care, and what she knows that might assist Lynley. And through it all, Lynley and Helen are still trying to define their relationship. Barbara Havers has moved to her new cottage and is struggling to redefine her life. This was an excellent read.
—Deb
