Playing for the Ashes (Inspector Lynley Book 7)

It is a very good mystery novel. The characters are well conceived, the plot is genial, the end is sad but very logic.
It goes beyond a typical police story. no bad guys - good guys stuff. Simply human

Too graphic and sexually explicit. Should be rated R. I threw away my entire collection. I loved the stories but won't waste my mind on trashy content. Ms. George seems to add more such content as she progressed through the stories. Her first weren't horrible but they become more so as she continued writing.

Mystery good but filthy language. I would NOT recommend this book. There are places where bad language would have been used in real life, but it was a constant in this book. Also, it ends very abruptly.

superbly drawn characters, well thought-out plot and a thought provoking read. Lynley's personal life is shared with the reader as well as his developing work relationship with Havers. The most emotionally felt relationship between a mother and her daughter is well drawn in this book. Their relationship is so sad and keeps the reader in hopes of an improvement. Naturally there is so much great curiosity about the nefarious activities of the different "players" in the main murder plot that I was absolutely glued to the book.

Seventh in the Inspector Lynley Mystery Series. A famous cricket player dies in a suspicious fire, and New Scotland Yard's investigation is complicated by the professional jealousy of the local constabulary. The suspects include the dead man's not-quite-ex-wife, his angry teen-age son, his lover (who has conveniently gone missing), her former lover, and at least three other people whose motives and relationships are too complex to be so neatly summarized. What these diverse characters have in common is their distastefulness-they are by far the most unpleasant group of people assembled in any of Elizabeth George's novels, and most of them have the foulest mouths, as well. In a departure from the style of the previous Inspector Lynley mysteries, George uses first-person narrative for some of the chapters, in the form of a journal kept by one of the characters. Although this device turns out to have a purpose, the narrator is an extremely unsympathetic figure who tries the reader's patience before the strands of the plot are connected. Meanwhile, Inspector Lynley clashes with his superiors and has new misunderstandings with Lady Helen Clyde, while Sergeant Barbara Havers moves into a new apartment. There are a great many details that suggest this installment could have used a little more careful editing. For example, the issues that Lynley and Helen quarrel about seem forced and artificial, and it is very hard to believe that a detective sergeant's salary doesn't allow for a new refrigerator. In sum, a disappointing downturn from the quality of the rest of the series.

The author puts in several sub-chapters on a character's background that have nothing to do with the story line, the main story line, the murder. They create a side-story that detracts from the main story.

You really don't need to read any of the Olivia chapters until you near then end of the book, after chapter 25, because THEN they do have a relevance to the main story.

I felt that it would have much better to have skipped most of the Olivia stories and only included the last few chapters.

This book, following my disappointment with the previous book in the Lynley series, "Missing Joseph", is now beginning to make me wonder if the television series was actually better than the books!

This, basically, normal George. Exactly what we have come to expect from a practioner of some really beautiful english language.
Her books are always incredibly involving, centring not just on the lives of the main characters, but featuring lives of all the subisidiary characters heavily. This makes the book feel more realisitc, lifelike. More true. After all, it is more like a proper murder case.
The writing is excellent. Sometimes she needs to learn the secret of brevity, though. Also, on occasion she takes the "show, don't tell" rule a bit too far. Nonetheless, her writing is often beautiful, complex, and a joy to read.
Her characters are so well developed. Its more like watching a real-life drama than it is reading a book. All their small insecurities, personality traits, personal relationships, interactions with other characters, are brought to the fore, making them jump off the page, and sometimes going a bit over the top. (Which is Elizabeth George's only crime.)
This is probably the best book, in terms of plotting, solution, structure, etc. The parrallel tracks the story runs on are done gloriously well, and they finally both converge together brilliantly. The solution is unexpted, and the culprit a surprise.
Overall, this is a very good crime novel, but it does suffer a bit from some of George's normal flaws. Her depictions of english life are apt to be a little off and over the top. SHe sometimes takes character development too far. And most of the books are a bit too long.
Nonetheless, i can live with all that. After all, this is still a really good mystery.

Elizabeth George continues her superb exploration of the theme of how love affects us in this engrossing police procedural. For once, she balances her powerful character-development skills with an intriguing plot to explore an intriguing mystery. This is the work of a master with all her talents fully on display.

The title refers to the UK-Australian cricket rivalry. If you don't know cricket, relax. Although cricket is part of the book's backdrop, you don't need to know anything about it to enjoy the book.

The stage is set when the UK's foremost cricket batsman, Kenneth Fleming, is found dead in a country cottage, the apparent victim of an arson-based fire. But he seems misplaced. The man was supposed to be in Greece with his elder son. What's going on?

Thomas Lynley and Barbara Havers face their toughest case yet as they probe the causes of the celebrity death while the tabloid headlines scream their usual exaggerated fare. There are plenty of clues . . . but they don't tie into any particular suspect . . . and the usual suspects all have alibis. How will they solve the case?

For me, the biggest appeal of this book is its broad look at attraction, parental love, romantic love, marital love, love among friends and love for our fellow creatures. She also does a remarkable job of exploring the hate and cruelty that come through the dark side of love. Ms. George takes the position that we are bound to be ensnared in harmful ways by all of these loving feelings, but that we wouldn't be human if we weren't. Our challenge: To do the right thing whenever enough passion cools its grip enough to allow us to function somewhat rationally.

Most of the attention is on characters who only appear in this book. The main development of the continuing characters comes as Lynley tries again to persuade Lady Helen to marry him. Barbara Havers begins to adjust to her new home and feels guilty about not visiting her mother as often as she should. If continuity from one book to another is important to you, you will probably find less here than you wanted.

Those who will be disappointed with this book will be fans of For the Sake of Elena who wanted to see another fascinating victim. Fleming is a complex character, but one who falls well below Elena in terms of his inherent ability to attract a reader's interest. But this book certainly does have more than its share of richly complex characters, especially in Olivia, who provides much of the book's narration.

. . . .~ ~ - ~ ~
~ - ~ One of Elizabeth George's strengths as a mystery writer is her ability to create complex intriguing characters, who can alternate between winning our sympathy and earning our intense dislike. She creates people in intolerable situations that bring out the best and even more strongly illustrated - the absolute worst parts of the character's personality.
~ - ~ This book may be the most intense of all. A young woman, alienated from her family, who is writing a journal, narrates most of the story. We understand from the beginning that her tale will somehow come to reveal important information about the death of a Cricket star, Kenneth Fleming.
Although, in the beginning, her story seems to have little to do with the murder, it is still the fascinating tale of her life. It is very intense and gritty reading about the wrongs committed by her mother and herself. She certainly doesn't paint herself in a rosy light.
It's only because she has reached some maturity of understanding, that we can dislike the actions she took in the past, and still have sympathy for her in the present.
~ - ~ Inspector Tommy Lynley and Sergeant Barbara Havers are investigating the murder. However, unlike the other books in this series, very little of the book is devoted to their lives. The story really belongs to the detestable and loveable narrator.
~ - ~ This is an absorbing and fascinating story, with an unexpected ending. Like all of George's books, you won't be able to put it down.

This book covers a tremendous amount of ground, and it is sometimes unclear how all the pieces fit together. Where else would you find cricket, ALS, and animal rights activists all in one novel? This is a novel that takes all of these disparate subjects, plus the lives of Thomas Lynley and Barbara Havers, and manages to bring them together, in a way that is ultimately fascinating. The change of narrration from the rest of the books in this excellent series is particularly interesting. Olivia is a compelling narrator, and it is easy for the reader to get carried along in her version of her mother's and Kenneth Fleming's life and then have to remind oneself that this is her imagined version, subject to interpretation, personal issues, etc.
Barbara Havers has some new and perplexing characters to deal with here, who have promise for the future. Gradually her self-imposed isolation is starting to be broken down, leaving her puzzled, chagrinned, and more human than ever before. I was less interested in the continuing vaccilations of Thomas Lynley's relationship with Lady Helen.

I have read all the Elizabeth George mysteries starting with A Great Deliverance that I happened to buy one night at a book store. I was ready to walk out and the sales lady said, "Try this one if you like mystery and intelligence." I was hooked.
In this one, George takes a sharp turn. The complexity is still present but there is a bitterness here not found in her prior works. She never employs random killings, senseless crimes, or madmen. What she does do is paint a heart-rending portrait of the human condition better than anyone I know. Character and plot develop together - a difficult task that seems to be her forte. I wondered how the seemingly disparate parts related but never fear, they are joined in an incredible ending.
The characters in this book continue to haunt me. Ones feelings toward the "heroine" slowly evolve from revulsion to anger to pity to awe as the story proceeds. The way she connects animal rights, disease, sports and above all, human relations, is superb. This is without a doubt one of the finest mysteries ever penned.

I have been a mystery reader for decades, and have probably read close to a thousand mystery novels. This is probably the best of them. George manages to delve into relationships between husbands and wives, parents and children, professional colleagues, and various other combinations, with a penetrating and sympathetic insight. The mystery itself is not the most complex or difficult case that I have ever read about, but it is more than enough to keep the reader guessing and interested. The sheer beauty of George's writing is incomparable in the mystery field, but then anyone who has read one of her novels already knows that. It has become a cliche to praise a mystery novel by saying that it could stand on its own as a wonderful novel even without the mystery element, but this time the cliche is absolutely true

This is a thoroughly enjoyable and superbly crafted book, in which two apparently disparate strands of narrative become woven together, albeit not altogether convincingly. That's to say, there is much reliance on coincidence, and at nearly 700 pages the plot is in danger at times of sinking under its own weight. But that is offset by the interplay between characters, particularly Inspector Lynley and D/S Havers, and you can always skip some of the more introspective passages and cut to the chase. But to give this less than five stars is an insult, particularly when you compare the quality of the prose to that of some of the best-sellers. Note to proof-readers: It's Belleek!

The unlikely combination of cricket players and anti-vivisectionists forms the core of Elizabeth George's seventh Inspector Lynley novel. As always, the personal relationships are troubled, the characters are well-drawn and fascinating, and the depiction of violence is tolerable only because the story line is so gripping.

This is the first Elizabeth George book I’ve read. The plot and potential list of suspects were interesting but the book was a slog to get through. I didn’t like the vulgarity of Olivia. The author spends a lot of time describing mundane things that don’t advance the plot. Did we really care about Barbara’s refrigerator and her next door neighbor? By the end of the book, I didn’t care about any of the characters. I’m not inclined to read another of the author’s books.

Rarely have I found myself clinging to a text that moved me to cry while concurrently "gross-ing me out". Vivid. Almost too vivid (but isn't life?).
This is the first of E.George's books I read. After reading all of the others (except for In Pursuit of the Proper Sinner), this is still the best one.
Riviting presentation of the plot from an unexpected view point (one of the suspects). I find it enjoyable to be able to read a mystery novel and have the end remain a mystery until I get there.
Reading the books in order might be beneficial for people who enjoy the character development across several volumes, but isn't necessary to the enjoyment of the book.
If you only buy one of Elizabeth George's books, this is the one to get.

Having read the previous Lynley/Havers mysteries by Elizabeth George, I have come to expect nothing but the best from her and this book did not disappoint. I am always amazed at Ms. George's ability to weave multiple storylines into a coherent, fascinating, enjoyable story. Another thing that occurred to me while reading this book is that all of George's characters have some redeeming quality(ies), even the murderer, because she understands that nothing and no one is simply good or bad, but rather varying shades of grey. And so it is in this compelling mystery involving a mother/daughter separated for years, a husband/wife also separated and a mother dealing with a verbally abusive teenage son. For each of the characters, you feel empathy, sympathy, dislike (at times bordering on loathing), love, and compassion. I have already bought the remaining books in this series and am now trying to figure a way to stop myself from reading them too quickly!

How grateful I am to have recently stumbled upon Elizabeth George's extraordinary mystery novels. I have acquired all of them now, but after reading two in a row, I feel I need to come up for air.

Playing for the Ashes is a heart-rending example of the law of natural consequences, not only for the self-flagelating Olivia and her savior, Chris, but also for all the other pain-wracked characters. The ARM storyline gave me strong ambivilent feelings: as an animal lover, I was horrified; as a possible future beneficiary of medical research, I was grudgingly accepting. Lots of parallels existed between Livie and the broken animals she rescued.

And, speaking of parallels, in the light of her last request to her mother, I felt like Olivia had spent her entire life "playing for the ashes."

If you have a tendency to skim over parts of dialogue to get the the "good stuff," don't do it in this case. Put the book down for a little while & then pick it back up & read and appreciate every word.

With this addition George's series takes up residence in your soul as well as your heart. If you're a new reader, start with A Great Deliverance, rather than the prequel, A Suitable Vengeance. You don't have to read them in order, but it's a good idea. In this book (like the last, Deception On His Mind), it is not Lynley and his friends who provide counterpoint to the mystery. As much as we like them, this is not a bad thing, although it may account for the seemingly slow start. But the several interwoven stories require no familiar backdrop. Once you're engaged, Olivia's tale brings enough beauty, mystery and pathos to etch her story into your soul. Read the other reviews. Even better, read the book.

1. A cast of unattractive characters, none of whom I could care about or believe in.
a. One of the characters, Olivia, is psychopathically aggressive toward her parents. She is a genius at taunting them in strong sexual language. While she is inviting two men to engage in sex with her on the street, her parents happen by (very plausible!) so she grabs her dad and (with the guys after her from the back) is delighted to provoke a physical reaction from her kind and gentle father, who dies of a heart attack soon after this encounter. Nice.
b. Another teenager, Jimmy, is a genius at taunting his mother in strong sexual language. (Oh, didn't I just say this about another character?) This time it is suggesting all her kids have different fathers and providing a detailed imagined description of her having sex with a series of men while others look on. Her response? "Oh, Jimmy, Daddy never meant you to hurt."
c. Lynley explains to Helen that he wants to marry her because she is a distraction from what he has to deal with at his job, that he loves wondering what he will find when he comes home to her, like whether she'll have blown up the house with the microwave. And because he likes sleeping with women. He deliberately humiliates her in her effort to start exercising. He not only condescends to her but says misogynist things in general. I am so turned off by his character I won't read the other books.
d. A host of others. Except for Havers, all are pretty disgusting.
2. Obfuscation by use of ambiguous pronouns. People rave on and on- "I didn't know you were there!", not meaning anyone present. Sigh. Over and over. It is not cricket (sorry!) to maintain suspense by making the reader cry "WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?" throughout the book.
3. Long-winded rambling. Was the author being paid by the word?
4. Overall, shabby, cruel, and implausible.

I've begun reading Elizabeth George only recently and I am trying to read all of her books in order. While this is a Lynley-Havers mystery, it's a little different from the others because the chapters alternate between the investigation into a murder and the journal of a young woman who knows who committed the murder. It's a very effective device for building the characters and plot line. Even if you think you have figured it all out by the end, you are so drawn into this woman's story that you wouldn't stop reading. As usual, another gem!

When the body of Test cricketer Keith Fleming is discovered in a country cottage, he is found to have died from smoke inhalation, following a deliberately set fire. DI Lynley and Sgt. Havers follow the investigation through to a very bitter end, involving a broken marriage,a broken love affair, embittered children and an older woman, tormented by unfulfilled love. Add in a group of animal welfare activists and a young woman who is gradually succumbing to the cruel ravages of a muscular degenerative disease, and ,as usual, M/s George gives the reader a long but fascinating story of love, hate and murder.

It started off rather slowly at first. Almost to the point that I thought I might not continue to read it. But,I had read Inspector Lynley before and knew if I kept at it I'd enjoy it. And I did. The characters are so well fleshed out that I felt I knew them. I felt so sorry for Olivia. So much angst. I DID figure out the why of it..but it took a while to figure out the who. Didn't want to put it down. Great read!

As with all of her books, George not only exhibits her mastery of the mystery genre, she also shows her keen understanding of the human heart, of family dynamics across the social classes, of the power of jealousy and revenge. She also continues to build the relationships between her recurring characters by weaving them into the story in a way that will not confuse readers who haven't read her books before, which is a feat until itself. A great, sad, brilliant, satisfying story, well written and well crafted

In this mystery, champion English cricketeer Kenneth Fleming is found dead as a result of arson. Because he doesn't smoke, the

scenario looks like possible arson. The suspects include his wife and eldest son, as well as the older teacher and mentor with whom he has a complex relationship. Half the book is narrated by the wayward daughter of the teacher, who is dying from ALS and whose troubled relationship with her mother she is pressed to resolve by her animal-rights activist boyfriend.

As usual, George does parent-child dynamics very well. Less interesting is the relationship between Lynley and his upper crust wife, but perhaps I'm in the minority.

This was the book that got me hooked on Elizabeth George. More than a whodunit, this book is about life as real people live it. It explores the characters of everyone, the victim, his wife, his sponsor, his lover, all the relationships involved, especially the bizarre one with his sponsor, even the lives of Lynley and Havers. That's what can make Elizabeth George a difficult read in the beginning -- all these intertwined lives moving in and out of the book.
The actual whodunit was devastating, but understandable. This, to me, was a sad book, to say the least, but there was a glimmer of hope in the end. I hardly read whodunits twice. This was the exception -- and I did it, not to review the movements of the killer, but to try to understand the characters better.
I have since acquired all her other books, even the first one I tried to read, and I'm waiting for the paperback edition of her latest book to come out. Elizabeth George's books are painful to read, they always hit you in the gut. I don't always like the stories, the deaths are often brutal, but, for some reason, I am hooked.

Elizabeth George has outdone herself in creating totally unlikeable characters and a side story that makes you sick to read about it, that was skipped over by me in the process of trying to get to the end of this monstrosity of a story. The only reason I finished this book was because I had decided to read the entire Inspector Lynley series in the order published. Otherwise, I would have deep-sixed this book when Olivia started telling her story. This book is on the same sub-par as George's "What Came Before He Shot Her." I usually love reading Elizabeth George's mysteries, but this tale was too much to handle and I do NOT recommend it to anyone who has any sensitivities to mistreatment of animals or dislike for subhuman behavior.

This book, unlike many in the series, focuses more on the figures in the crime than the police investigating the crime. I found the story of Olivia and her mother repelling and compelling at the same time. I hated them and loved them. I wanted to reach into the book and shake them several times. I truly cared about them and their relationship. The ending of this book made me sit in silence for several minutes and reflect on how parents and children can both love each other hate each other at the same time. I won't forget Olivia soon - nor her final request of her mother.

I have read the first five of the Inspector Lynley series and loved them, but this one was huge disappointment. I found the book very tedious and just couldn't get through it. The plot is overly involved (and somewhat bizarre) and constantly moves back and forth between characters and sub-stories that makes it very difficult to stay engaged. Very unlike the rest of the Inspector Lynley series. The relationship between Helen and Lynley also really began to get on my nerves in this book. Elizabeth George seems intent on dragging out Helen's acceptance of Lynley's proposal and in this book it became truly annoying. Helen was a minor character I quite liked in previous books but in this one she came across as a dazed and empty woman in need of a tight slap. Even worse were the conversations between her and Lynley - use of allusion and metaphors taken to another level altogether. All in all, I'd skip this and hope the next one is better.

In my view, Elizabeth George has written her masterpiece in this story. Her characterization is unsurpassed -- the rebellious Olivia living on the edge, running after the ever-more-bizarre experience, at times downright unlikeable, yet she touches the human spirit in hidden, unexpected ways that no goody-goody heroine could ever manage to do.
The plot too is George's best in my opinion, her talent for complexity woven into a fabric of the strangest realms of human behavior. "Nothing human is alien to me," a sage once said. While we're wondering if the strange players in this exotic web might be the exception, we are suddenly struck to the very bone of human compassion.
Olivia's mother is a vivid portrait of an unhappy, unsatisfied woman, the murdered man a not-so-simple enigma, and his teenage son's raw pain and searing uncertainty almost made me weep. And at last, the choice that the straightlaced Lynley faces brings "Playing for the Ashes" a final standing ovation.
One word to Elizabeth George for this wonderful book: Bravo!

This was the first Elizabeth George book I had an opportunity to read. Since then I have eagerly pored through the entire Lynley/Havers series, to the point of waiting for 353 other readers on the list at the library to get through her most recent one. I immediately fell in love with Tommy Lynley and Helen. They are so charming and misguided! The gruff Barbara Havers adds an additional level of poignancy and humor. I check the store every day in hopes that Elizabeth George somehow wrote a book that I missed somewhere along the way. If you haven't read one of her books yet, you are definitely in for a treat! She treats her readers with respect, and offers a well-rounded story in addition to a satisfying mystery. George has quickly become one of my favorite authors. I wish I could thank her.

The character of Olivia in Elizabeth George's PLAYING FOR THE ASHES is just plain weird. Despite the intricate plotting and intricate story line it was a difficult book to finish.
As a writer of romance Ms. George does not excel. Lynley and Helen seem pathetic cross matches rather than friends on the way to the alter. Maybe Ms. George should invest in a critical editor.
PLAYING FOR THE ASHES is not the worst in this series, but it will run it a close second.
Nash Black, author of TRAVELERS.

As with other George novels, this one does slow occasionally and could be improved with more careful editing. However, the overall effect is that Playing for the Ashes is an intriguing mystery that keeps the reader engaged. Elizabeth George successfully intertwines two story lines and an imaginative variety of characters into a book that entertains and holds its suspense to the end.

George has made the error of focusing our attentions upon a non-recurring character, who is neither sympathetic nor interesting. One half of the story is consumed with a subplot that is only obliquely related to the mystery. If George wants to develop central non-recurring characters, she would do better to take as an example her character Elena in "For the Sake of Elena". I hope that her subsequent books do not repeat this error.

I am hooked on murder mysteries in general but an Elizabeth George novel is so much more! She moves forward with the lives of her chief characters, Lynsey, Havers, Lady Helen, Simon and Deborah in every book and weaves their stories into the lives of those involved in the murder! No two stories are anything like the one before! I am reading them in order and will be devastated when I finish.

Playinng for the Ashes is the best mystery I have ever read. The skill of the narrative is amazing. I am a student of Henry James and know he himself would be astounded at the complex weaving of character and situation and the evolution of a self-centered, self-destructive young woman into a caring and loving individual. Chris Farady has to be one of the great characters of the English novel. George has a way of putting true goodness on the page that is utterly credible and, most of all, ever human. I love this book and turn to it over and over. I feel the characters are real people who influence the ways I think and treat others. I hope Elizabeth George brings these characters back to us, as she does her major ones.

After watching and enjoying the Inspector Lynley series on PBS, I broke one of my firm rules for such situations and bought two of the books without first checking them out of the library to see if they were as good or better than the movie/TV version. I found them tedious and meandering. However, I knew that Elizabeth George has many enthusiastic fans among book critics and the reading public, so when I saw Playing for the Ashes at an extremely cheap price, I thought that maybe I had been unlucky in my first two choices, and bought it. Ugh! It was fully as bad as the most critical reviewers have said. It is very long-winded. Ms.George rarely makes a point in one paragraph when she can drag it out for a page or two. The emotional problems of the principal characters are explored in excessive and repetitious detail. The worst example( though there are many others, including Lynley and Havers themselves ) is Olivia Whitelaw. Long stretches of the book (very, very long stretches) are spent detailing her present and past problems, psychological and physical. We are obviously meant to feel empathy and pity for her, but she is such a thoroughly unpleasant piece of work that this is impossible, and this insistence grows from irritating to downright annoying. There is a pretentiousness about this author's works which is grating. It is as if she feels the need, every few pages, to say to the reader "Look! I'm not just a mystery writer, I'm a novelist." I'm not arguing that an author cannot write a good, satisfying mystery which also includes shrewd and illuminating observations on people and society, or that a "whodunnit" has to be short and shallow, but rather that the characters and situations should contribute to the story and illuminate it. All the best mysteries do precisely that, which is why we can reread them many times with enjoyment even though we know the who, how, and why of the murders. Too often, Elizabeth George's do not. She seems to wallow in misery, to relish it for it's own sake. She strives hard, too hard, to be "deep", and so she fails to be. The Inspector Lynley series is one of those rarities in which a TV version is far better than the books from which it was adapted.

After reading several other novels by Elizabeth George, all of which I enjoyed a lot, the characters in this novel were unappealing and to me a bit bizarre. To the extent that I quite reading the book halfway, not something I do often. Readers should know that the thoughts and behaviour of some of the characters, i.e. the daughter, may offend. It will be a while before I attempt another work by this author, even though I found her insight into Englishness enlightening.

I gather from reading other reviews that Playing For the Ashes is typical of Elizabeth George's work, i.e. it features lengthy (and I mean really lengthy) digressions involving characters who may or may not end up being important in the end. George appears to have an excellent ear for British English. She does what she does very well, but if you prefer a fairly straightforward police procedural, you probably won't enjoy this.

As always, this was well written. However, several aspects of the murder stretch credulity. This, coupled with some very graphic distasteful descriptive elements makes this book only three stars for me.

Once again, Elizabeth George has written another magnificent mystery which draws her fans to the scene of the crime like a spider seductively inviting a fly into her parlor and keeps them enraptured with a mixture of curioisity, anticipation, and suspense as to who committed the crime. What is more, fans of the great Shakes- pearian actor Derek Jacobi will be pleased to listen to yet another exquisite performance! ''Playing For The Ashes''is well worth playing on your sound system's tape deck!