Rating  - 500 pages too long
My first Elizabeth George mystery. My last. Overwritten. Pointless detail and dialogue. And all for very little at the end.
Phooey. Read something else.
Rating  - Didn't really give it a chance
I must confess I abandoned this after 217 pp, a third of the way through. I used to like Ms. George, but she has gotten into a rut by building stories longer than they need to be, cramming in all the main characters in the first 100 pp without any relationship of each to another or to the main crime. They just "pile on," a penalty in football. Eventually, you can't remember who's who, and her books are simply too long to care whodunnit or even why. That said, I really enjoyed Ms. George's non-mystery, WHAT HAPPENED BEFORE HE SHOT HER. I think she should turn to case studies like that rather than mysteries. Despite mixed reviews, I bought this one because I am very fond of Cornwall. I'm sure she's been there, but by p. 217 she hasn't evoked it. I give it two stars because I did not play fair with it. Jack Crane, Santa Fe, NM
Rating - A yawner on my Kindle
This was one of the first books I downloaded onto my new Kindle several weeks ago. I've enjoyed some of Elizabeth George's Lynley books although I found "What Came Before He Shot Her" simply unreadable. The free sample first chapter of "Careless in Red" was OK so I bought the whole book. (And I think the novelty of clicking right there on the Kindle to order, and having it download almost instantly, played a big part in the decision.)
That order was a sad mistake.
If it weren't for the novelty of reading a book on my new (at the time) Kindle I might not have finished this one. It was much too long and full of characters about whom I could never be persuaded to care. Sometimes George gives us characters whose suffering we can understand, but then there are the ones I just want to tell "get over yourself and on with things." The latter type were all over this book - self-indulgent, angst-ridden, inflated egos and all. Despite doggedly reading the whole book I can remember very little about the mayhem and foolishness (to borrow a phrase from Niecy Nash, who come to think of it would be a really fun addition to the Lynley crowd) involved.
Too bad I can't get my money back for a Kindle book, or even try to sell it used.
Rating  - `He found the body on the forty-third day of his walk.'
Thomas Lynley, still coming to terms with the murder of his wife Helen, has retreated to Cornwall where he is hiking the bleak, rugged coastline alone with his thoughts, memories and demons.
On the forty-third day of his walk, he finds the body of a young man who appears to have fallen to his death. As the first person on the scene, Thomas Lynley himself is under suspicion.
Thus begins one of the most interesting mysteries I have read for some time. Can Thomas Lynley overcome his inner demons (and does he want to?) to assist the undermanned local police to solve what appears to be a carefully planned murder? Almost everyone in the local town appears to know something that might be relevant and almost no-one wants to volunteer any information. There are plenty of secrets and an abundance of red herrings to engage and distract the reader. Even if you do work out who did it, and why, before the end of the book as I did there are other aspects of the story which kept me interested to the end.
Barbara Havers is sent to assist the investigation. So we have a version of the old partnership between Lynley and Havers in operation together with a new partnership between Havers and Detective Inspector Bea Hannaford. There are plenty of interesting characters here and some complex (and not so complex) motivations come into play.
So, why four stars instead of five? Some aspects of the story worked brilliantly for me, others less so. But overall, this is an engaging novel which has me hoping that we've not seen the last of Lynley and Havers (and some of the other characters introduced, as well).
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
Rating - At last they're back
While the reviews seem to split between longtime fans and newbies, if you haven't read George before you might not understand that all these stories link. This allows a depth of character development that's rare these days and creates a sense that the people in these novels live and breathe. I for one am glad to hear George back in voice with her characters full of doubts and contradictions as usual. She has an unerring eye for setting too, capturing the distinct atmosphere of the Cornish coast. I found this book particularly overloaded with suspects, but some new and interesting actors have appeared. I hope they stick around. I found Lynley's thoughts on Havers, which appear on the last page, particularly touching.
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