by Elizabeth George
This is the first book I have read by this author. It is a book about Inspector Lynley and Sgt Havers. I have to say I did not enjoy the book, Lynley and Havers only showed up about 3/4 of the way through the book.
The book is about a man who is murdered. He had divorced his wife after falling in love with a 19 year old girl them met on a cruise for his wife and his 25 anniversary. The man is an artisan working with metals that are mined near his property. The man and other local people are being wooed by an agent who is trying to buy their land or get licences for their property to mine for lithium. This agent has left his wife and is in love with a 17 year old girl who is anxious for them to wed.
The book jumps from the present back to text by the dead man about his life. The book is very very wordy, almost 600 pages.
The dead man has a father and his somewhat slow son working for him. The young man is found murdered based on very incriminating evidence. The sister of a love interest of Lynley's asks Havers, who is on leave after the death of her mother, to help prove the young man innocent. Eventually Lynley finds out and steps in to help investigate. The story also considers whether the man's children might have murdered him to get money from the sale of the property.
We eventually find out that the young woman and the dead man's husband convinced the slow son that she was being abused by her husband, he gets so worked up that he does kill the man to protect her because he really cares for her.
I felt there was too much verbiage, and the extra storylines of extra family members, the lust of the agent, and visits by Havers to Lynley's family home which is in crisis because of the need for major repairs. I forced myself to finish reading it and am glad I did, sort of, as I wasn't expecting the ending, nor Lynley professing his love for his love interest.
I am not sure I will read other books by her....
There is a new series on TV with Lynley and Havers but it isn't nearly as good as the original.
