BS: Books: Elizabeth George's next book

Subject: Inspector Lynley and Barbara Havers
From: keberoxu
Date: 18 Feb 18 - 04:38 PM

Elizabeth George has a new mystery in her ongoing series that
is to be released in mid-March 2018.
Amazon dot com already has a pagemarker for pre-orders.

"The Punishment She Deserves" is the title of the book,
and Barbara Havers is prominently featured.
From the brief description,
the murder takes place well away from London,
so Barbara Havers is delegated to travel away from London
and investigate.

Guess that will leave Lynley back at HQ and working with Havers long distance.

Subject: RE: BS: Books: Elizabeth George's next book
From: keberoxu
Date: 18 Feb 18 - 07:38 PM

Here's a curious thing:
the descriptions given in different countries, for the same book,
reveal very different things.

The description given at Amazon -- the US site --
focuses on Barbara Havers being far from London in a strange town.

But New Zealand (albeit a merchant different than Amazon)
goes at "The Punishment She Deserves" from another angle.
This won't spoil things too much,
especially if you are new to the series.

The conflict, in the procedural sense (apart from the crime)
is Barbara Havers verses Isabelle Ardery.
Longtime readers will recall that those two really clash with each other. One is fiercely independent; and the other is relationship-driven, being a parent.

So Havers and Ardery, according to the New Zealand site,
are to cooperate with each other in investigating a suspicious death
in a picturesque medieval town rather a ways from London.
Ardery is distracted by the threatened loss of children (a divorced parent as well)
while Havers goes deep fast, and pursues high-context, tangential leads
with the terrier tenacity that makes the rest of the world disappear
while she is working a case.

I don't think you have to be a rocket scientist to guess
which of the investigators will still be in the picture,
and which one may be ushered out of the series somehow . . .

agree? disagree?

(we still have to wait a month, plus, to find out)

Subject: RE: BS: Books: Elizabeth George's next book
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 19 Feb 18 - 02:13 AM

Lynley still not shagging her...?

its getting a bit like The Remains of the Day. all a bit sad.

Subject: RE: BS: Books: Elizabeth George's next book
From: keberoxu
Date: 19 Feb 18 - 10:34 AM

Spoiler alert a book or two back:

Lynley already got laid.
But not Havers.

And no, I don't mean a colleague he works with, either.

Subject: RE: BS: Books: Elizabeth George's next book
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 19 Feb 18 - 02:44 PM

that's no good.
s
its definitely Sharon Small we want to see doing naked romps with the Inspector.

Subject: RE: BS: Books: Elizabeth George's next book
From: Anglo
Date: 19 Feb 18 - 04:45 PM

I'd been away from the series for a while and just read "Believing The Lie." I was somewhat disappointed when the accountant was "pouring over the books." They must have been getting very damp. I consider her a prominent author - can't they even spring for a proofreader in these times of greed?

Subject: RE: BS: Books: Elizabeth George's next book
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 19 Feb 18 - 06:14 PM

OK, so what?s the best book for a newbie to start with? I watched the TV series (LOL, Al) but have never read anything by EG. I?d prefer something pre-Isabelle Ardery, I think. Suggestions?

Subject: RE: BS: Books: Elizabeth George's next book
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 19 Feb 18 - 06:19 PM

What?s with the question marks in place of apostrophes? I corrected this problem three times, and it was right in the preview screen... honest, guv. (Not previewing this time, see if that makes a difference.)

Subject: RE: BS: Books: Elizabeth George's next book
From: keberoxu
Date: 19 Feb 18 - 06:28 PM

Oh, dear, Bonnie.
The big question, particularly with the books, is Lady Helen.
This is a spoiler, sorry, but:
I divide the Lynley stories into two areas:
Before Helen and After Helen.
Lady Helen does wonders for Inspector Lynley, and then ...
he has to learn how to live without her.

It's safe to say -- granted I last read one of these books years ago --
that Lady Helen is in the Lynley series from the very very beginning.
More to the point,
since you mention Isabelle Ardery,
it is only with the loss of Lady Helen
that Isabelle Ardery's character eventually arrives.   

What happens to Lady Helen polarized Elizabeth George readers everywhere,
and some of them said they would never forgive EG for it.

Subject: RE: BS: Books: Elizabeth George's next book
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 19 Feb 18 - 06:49 PM

I know that ***SPOILER ALERT!!!***
she gets it and he?s bereft, and never seems to be the same afterwards, if the reader reviews I saw are anything to go by. I?m pretty sure I would prefer the books before that divisive event.

And who is this Deborah St John? She doesn?t seem too popular either! I?m with Al... I want Lynley and Havers. Been ages since I watched it, though.

Subject: RE: BS: Books: Elizabeth George's next book
From: keberoxu
Date: 19 Feb 18 - 06:58 PM

Who is Deborah St. John? Well,
she is mixed up with Lynley from the very beginning as well.
Also a divisive character, as you have noted.
She fades out somewhat, oddly enough, after the loss of Lady Helen,
and is more prominent during the Lady Helen years.
St. John is Deborah's married name.

If I remember right,
"A Great Deliverance," the first published Lynley book,
is a murder mystery that occurs
when Deborah and St. John are newlyweds on their honeymoon!

It's a good one. The ending, for one thing, is remarkably hopeful.

Subject: RE: BS: Books: Elizabeth George's next book
From: keberoxu
Date: 21 Feb 18 - 12:43 PM

"Careless in Red" is one of the Lynley books.
Allow me to make a case for it -- it really engaged me,
so that it had to be read through several times.

The downer side to "Careless in Red" is that it comes
right after the loss of Lady Helen,
and Lynley is reeling.
The upper is that Lynley has the good sense, during his sabbatical,
to leave London and go somewhere, anywhere, else.
So it's a complete change of scene
to a coastal part of England where they actually have surfing;
surfing plays a pivotal part in the murder mystery in the story.

A whole bunch of interesting characters whom we never meet again,
but welcome diversion, especially for poor Lynley.
And since I don't want to spoil it:
there is one new character
who will, in time, relocate to London . . . might be important in future.

Subject: RE: BS: Books: Elizabeth George's next book
From: keberoxu
Date: 07 Apr 18 - 04:40 PM

Have just finished reading
"The Punishment She Deserves."
I think a lot of what transpires in this plot,
and it is a fiendishly tangled plot in places,
is about motherhood.
Virtually every woman who is a mother
is in for some sort of reckoning in the course of this plot.
Some of it breaks your heart.
When Elizabeth George does heartbreakingly sad, she does it with a vengeance.

As for Barbara Havers:
as she is nobody's mother,
and her unwell mother has been committed to institutional care,
all that she has to worry about is
all the other women practically trampling over her.
Lynley, after all, has her back, and she his --
even though their partnership is challenged as never before.

Lynley comes out of this one well;
his bosses at London HQ look worse than ever, though.

There is one final touch, at the very end,
which will make sense only to those readers who have read
the one with a death in Italy, what was it called?
I think it was "Just One Evil Act" or something close to it.

Subject: RE: BS: Books: Elizabeth George's next book
From: keberoxu
Date: 10 Apr 18 - 01:02 PM

If the detective Barbara Havers is known to you
only through the television adaptation
with Sharon Small cast as Havers,

then you won't believe
what Havers and Dorothea Harrimann
are doing together in this book.