Rating: 
Summary: Good but not great
Review: I like Elizabeth George, but this is not one of her stronger works. It involves a deaf student who is murdered.
Rating: 
Summary: Uncle
Review: I'm finally calling it quits with this series. Only a devoted Harlequin fan would find the interminable Tommy-Helen, Simon-Deborah, Barbara-parents soap opera to be tolerable, much less engaging. What on earth does all of this sturm und drang have to do with the murder mystery genre? And the motive in this particular installment is so idiotic that one resents having had to tough it out in order to finish the book.I like feeling entertained when I read a murder mystery. These books make me feel as though I need to take a bath.
Rating:
Summary: Uncle
Review: I'm finally calling it quits with this series. Only a devoted Harlequin fan would find the interminable Tommy-Helen, Simon-Deborah, Barbara-parents soap opera to be tolerable, much less engaging. What on earth does all of this sturm und drang have to do with the murder mystery genre? And the motive in this particular installment is so idiotic that one resents having had to tough it out in order to finish the book. I like feeling entertained when I read a murder mystery. These books make me feel as though I need to take a bath.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book, disappointing mystery
Review: Like all Elizabeth George's books, this is beautifully written and the characters are wonderfully well developed. As the title suggests. the story centers on the first victim, the sexy, charismatic Elena Weaver. In a good mystery, the solution seems inevitable once it is revealed. In this case, the solution is grounded in a relationship that is difficult to believe and thus is ultimately unsatisfying. The pleasure in the book comes from the continuing developments in the lives of the main characters: the relationships between Thomas Lynley and Lady Helen Clyde and Barbara Havers and her mother. It would not be a good place for a first-time reader of this excellent writer to start.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book, disappointing mystery
Review: Like all Elizabeth George's books, this is beautifully written and the characters are wonderfully well developed. As the title suggests. the story centers on the first victim, the sexy, charismatic Elena Weaver. In a good mystery, the solution seems inevitable once it is revealed. In this case, the solution is grounded in a relationship that is difficult to believe and thus is ultimately unsatisfying. The pleasure in the book comes from the continuing developments in the lives of the main characters: the relationships between Thomas Lynley and Lady Helen Clyde and Barbara Havers and her mother. It would not be a good place for a first-time reader of this excellent writer to start.
Rating:
Summary: george is not sayers - but, oh, she tries!
Review: The only reason why I rated this book above average was due to George's attempt to update Sayer's masterpiece, Gaudy Night. Like "Gaudy," this book is set in an English university town, examines the rarefied academic atmosphere, and has the subplot of what marriage does to women. Unfortunately, Lady Helen is not Harriet, and Lynley is most definitely not Lord Peter. All the same, she should get credit for trying and, like all of her other books, this story is a fun way to spend a rainy day.
Rating: 
Summary: Thomas and Barbara head to Cambridge
Review: There's much to like in this, the fifth book published of the Lynley/Havers series. Anglophiles will throughly enjoy the details of college life in Cambridge. George does a wonderful job of capturing the little inner worlds of the colleges and the role of the Cam in the life of the city (if my memories of a semester there in the 1970's hold true). It's also a darn good mystery with a new prime suspect every fifty or so pages. The ending is a bit like a gourmet dinner - tricking to taste the complexity, a tad difficult to digest but ultimately satisfying. The subthemes of the book are equally interesting. Much of the book has to do with well-meaning, loving people trying to meet the expectations of those they love. Elena, the victim, is deaf with parents who have spent twenty years trying to make her as "normal" as possible. But what is normal for a deaf person? Much (too much) of the book dwells on Havers internal battle over whether she should send her Alzheimer's inflicted mother to a small care facility. I've withheld a fifth star because of my unresolved confusion about Lynley's relationship with Lady Helen. I really enjoy this series but sometimes the publication order and the actual timeline are confusing. In this book, all of a sudden and out of the blue (for me) Lynley is ardently persuing Lady Helen. There are references the "past nine months" but I felt like I'd missed something. Quite frankly, I'm not surprised by Helen's reluctance to get involved if the building blocks of the relationship of are as vague to her as they were for me. Bottom-line: A strong and interesting mystery that should satsify old and new readers alike. New readers are encouraged to start at the beginning of the series to better understand the personal side of the players.
Rating:
Summary: Thomas and Barbara head to Cambridge
Review: There's much to like in this, the fifth book published of the Lynley/Havers series. Anglophiles will throughly enjoy the details of college life in Cambridge. George does a wonderful job of capturing the little inner worlds of the colleges and the role of the Cam in the life of the city (if my memories of a semester there in the 1970's hold true). It's also a darn good mystery with a new prime suspect every fifty or so pages. The ending is a bit like a gourmet dinner - tricking to taste the complexity, a tad difficult to digest but ultimately satisfying. The subthemes of the book are equally interesting. Much of the book has to do with well-meaning, loving people trying to meet the expectations of those they love. Elena, the victim, is deaf with parents who have spent twenty years trying to make her as "normal" as possible. But what is normal for a deaf person? Much (too much) of the book dwells on Havers internal battle over whether she should send her Alzheimer's inflicted mother to a small care facility. I've withheld a fifth star because of my unresolved confusion about Lynley's relationship with Lady Helen. I really enjoy this series but sometimes the publication order and the actual timeline are confusing. In this book, all of a sudden and out of the blue (for me) Lynley is ardently persuing Lady Helen. There are references the "past nine months" but I felt like I'd missed something. Quite frankly, I'm not surprised by Helen's reluctance to get involved if the building blocks of the relationship of are as vague to her as they were for me. Bottom-line: A strong and interesting mystery that should satsify old and new readers alike. New readers are encouraged to start at the beginning of the series to better understand the personal side of the players.
Rating: 
Summary: The best one so far...but....
Review: This is a good novel. not merely a crime or mystery novel...a good novel. the writing is good, the characters are great and interesting, the plot is probably her ebst so far, but could well have done with a bit more development. The way she deals with deafness was quite good, very unpatronising, but if she wanted it to become more of a theme, she should have spent a little more time with the Deaf people assosciated with the story, instead of just glancing over them as she seemed to. But there is one point where she comes miserably unstuck. Right at the beginning...the first chapter even. The writer is told the golden rule "never lie to your readers"....which, in this novel, was something Elizabeth george definitely does. I am trying to think of ways to describe her flawm whilst at the same time not telling you who did it. Let's just say...the way a certain person acts at the start definitely works against the fact that they turn out to be the murderer. It's wrong psychology...the way the characters had acted, when we find out they were the murderer, is just nonsense. However, in all other aspects, this is a great great book. In this series, it is second only to A Traitor to Memory. It has one of the best motives of any crime novels i've ever read. some people have said it's very unbelieable and would not have given rise to the sort of feelings shown in the killing of Elena. But those people just do not understand....when i read what Tony Weaver was made to do, i was horrified. Being a "creator" (albeit of a differnt type of art) myself, i can well understand what drove the killer to do the deed. This is a marvellous book in the fact that by the end of it, almost all your opinions of the characters have compeltely reversed. Well, i certainly found mine doing that. At the start, i liked Justine, but by the end, i just plain hated her. Anthony Weaver first comes across as quite a nice man...but then his true personality is revealed. I started off disliking Gareth Randolph, but by the end felt very sorry for the poor lad. And Sarah Gordon, who i started off as being completely indifferent to, i came to feel intense sympathy for, and liked a great deal. Glyn Weaver, i started off feeling sympathetic toward, but by the end i just couldn't stand her. This is a great book, highly reccomeneded. However, you must of course start at the start. With A Great Deliverance.
Rating:
Summary: For The Sake Of Elena Is Elizabeth George's Master Work
Review: This is the third Elizabeth George novel I have purchased from amazon.com, read by Derek Jacobi, and I consider it to be the author's master work! True, it is just as well written as her other books, but what sets this apart is the fact that Jacobi brings alive the beautiful sensitivity of the story through his reading Elena Weaver's few lines toward the end, the sound of his tear-filled voice also bringing the listener to tears of their own! This is definitely a must-have for anyone who is both an Elizabeth George fan, as well as a fan of this versatile British actor.
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