A Great Deliverance

The axe was too kind
papa deserved to suffer
rest in peace, puppy.

Beautifully written but the end was horribly unexpected. Noooot a light-hearted crime novel.

I read this book because I wanted to start at the beginning of this famous series I'd heard so much about. I found the Lynley and Havers characters well drawn as individuals and interesting together. However the plot was familiar and the resolution unnecessarily voyeuristic. I'll read the next in the series to see if this is a fluke or a feature.

This is a great book with descriptions of countryside capable of transporting me to a small town in England easily. To be honest, I picked this book up at the library having only seen the reviews from goodreads; the jacket plot description did not sound intriguing to me at all. Fortunately, the book turned out much better than the jacket predicted, and I'm glad I read it. The relationship of Lynley and Havers is thoroughly explored, and, like Havers, I have a love/hate relationship with Lynley throughout the novel. As the mystery is revealed (not a real head-scratcher really), so are the inner turmoils of the main characters. This book is perhaps a mystery by genre, but George spends plenty of time exploring the characters deeply. I enjoyed it overall and will be reading more by Elizabeth George.