Believing the Lie

by Elizabeth George

This is another British mystery, part of a series featuring Inspector Thomas Lynley.  He drives an exotic old car, and has a butler, it seems he might now be working for the money...

In this story Lynley is sent on an undercover assigment to investigate a drowning that was deemed an accident by the police and coroners in the Cumbria area of England.  Lynley is grieving the death of his wife at the hands of a twelve year old.  He has fallen into an affair with his overbearing and controlling boss, and he has an occasional liaison with one of his co-workers.  He enlists the help of two of his friends as he goes to investigate the death at the wealthy Fairclough estate.

At the same time as Lynley is there, there is a bumbling, failing, reporter from a scandal rag who is trying to dig up a juicy story on the family.

As Lynley get's to know the family all sorts of dirty secrets start to come out from under the covers.  The murdered man had recently abandoned his wife for a homosexual affair, leaving his property to his lover.  His wife, a very self-centered, very angry woman, had surrendered her kids to her husband, and doesn't seem to want anything to do with them even after her husband dies  The son is particularly disturbed and is engaged in self-destructive behaviour.  Another child in the family is a manipulative woman who pretends to be disabled and the prodigal son, an addict, who has returned home and who is trying to convince his father that he can go straight.

As we work our way through the story we find that there are many secrects in the family, some of which are being paid off for their silence.

Both the friend Lynley has brought along with him, and his colleague's actions result  in actions they did not anticipate and which they deeply regret.

The mother of the family is the one who had wanted the investigation into the death, hoping to bring up information about the infidelity of her husband, little did she expect how destructive this would be for the majority of her family.

All in all while I found the story interesting with many twists and turns, I found most the characters totally self-absorbed and disagreeable.  Because of this I did not enjoy the story and wasn't a engaged in the outcome as I could have been.