By Elizabeth George
Group Reviews/Comments:
I love this book and I love this series. They all jump off the page as complete characters. The mystery was wonderful. Seemed modern–of the times.
I hated it! The one positive–accurate and well written for the time and place. Lynley was a nice enough but Barbara was the worst and it dragged it down for me. So much extraneous stuff. The ultimate conclusion was compelling.
I liked it. Was more shocking of a theme when I first read it in the 1990s. I liked the mystery and I like George’s writing.
I liked her writing. Havers is a bit exaggerated but I like how the characters evolve. A bit turned off by how much we are in Lynley and Haver’s heads.
I struggled with this book. I didn’t love it or hate it. It seemed to go on and on, prose and dialogue needed to be tightened. Subject matter disturbing and hard to read. Yet a very authentic voice, even though George is American and writing such a British novel.
Chunky. You learn everything about everybody! Did Havers have to be so awful? Second half read much faster but it was all so grim.
I enjoyed the writing. Barbara is ridiculously overdone–that was the biggest problem, should have dialed her back.
Took a while to get comfortable in the story. Hard to get a sense of time. Interesting having a titled detective who has to relate to the rural folks. Kept me guessing almost to the end. Very disturbing.
Hard to listen to audiobook.
All the stereotypes really caught my attention. Terribly confused on the detective front. Liked that Lynley wasn’t a typical police detective.
