A Traitor to Memory (Inspector Lynley Book 11)

This novel was very different from any other of Ms. George's Inspector Lynley novels. The first-person psychological writings of Gideon were most unusual and not at all the style normally found in her other novels.

The latest entry in the Elizabeth George libretto is a fascinating yarn through Londoners' minds and pasts. This is definitely one of her longer books (I cannot believe it only took her 10 months to write--pure genius, she is), but to this reader, did not drag at one point through the 700+ pages of suspense.
I am not a reviewer that needs to recap the story. the store does that quite fine. I believe we are here to rate the books and give our opinions, so what it is worth, here is mine.
Amazingly enough, Ms. George is always able to create real people out of even the most minor characters. You feel as if you know the lives of someone who is only featured on one or two pages by her magnificent descriptions. She is truly a master at this. One never knows if the person mentioned in two paragraphs on page, lets say, 246 will be a figure at the end. This is how she keeps us hooked. The Character of Gideon is revealed through a diary of flashbacks, much like her character of Olivia in Playing for the Ashes. This weaves throughout the story and helps the puzzle fit together (almost) at the very end. Helen Lynley is thankfully not quite as annoying as she has been in previous novels. (Perhaps her expectant state will mellow her a bit in future novels) and her interaction with Lynley seems as a real marriage for the first time since I have read through the relationship from the beginning. Barbara is back at her most cynical, while Winston Nkata bares some teeth in his first major entry in a George novel.
The end???? Read it twice, perhaps three times. The last 20 pages seem to tie the story together. But I will admit myself to being confused on the very last page. Perhaps I looked into in incorrectly, but it seems to put everything said in the final chapters back and focus on a completely new suspect. Or, were we witnessing a flashback to his childhood acted out, unfortunately as an adult? What is the blue door? (I will also admit, I am still confused by this one. It is explored, but not deep enough to find the true meaning). Any help, readers? Email me.....
All in all, a wonderful book. I absolutely adore you, Elizabeth George and am now saddened that I must wait another year to read the next installment. Oh well, perhaps I'll go back to In the Presence of the Enemy or Well Schooled in Murder and re-read them. One can never read too much of these characters, can we

My first reaction to the utterly unexpected ending was to turn the page for the rest of the story. When I realized it was over, I went to my list of George novels (so as to read them in sequence) to look up the next title to see if there's another chapter that will reveal what really happened at the end of this book. I do hope a sequel might at least hint at something conclusive. This reaction of mine reveals that I'm a naive optimist who won't stop looking for the silver lining. And that as a music lover I just couldn't cope with the idea that the last episode was the author's final vision for that poor boy. And that as a former therapist I'd hoped that what was some superb self-discovery under the competent Dr. Rose (as revealed in the diary) would have reached a satisfying outcome. And that as a reader, I felt...tricked. Not to mention some of the side stories. Unlike some reviewers, I do enjoy George's complex characters and inventive subplots, providing foils and early whodunnit conclusions, but several of these characters - the lodger (weird and disgusting), the cybersex devotees (awful), the former teacher (inexplicable), the low-end brothers (hapless), even poor Mr. Wiley, weren't worth the ink and didn't advance the plot. And why the otherwise sharp Jill Foster would attach herself to a man whose cluttered, ugly environment matched an intractable, hideous personality was beyond me. Still, I'll read on, concerned for the Webberleys, hopelessly in love with Linley, Helen, Deborah, Simon, Winston, Barbara and Haddiyah. Hoping Elizabeth George has gotten this one out of her system.

Although this was a very long book (and basically entertaining) I felt like the ending was abrupt and incomplete. The the story alternated between journal entries and the present. Near end of the book the journal entries caught up to the investigation (but it was the beginning of the investigation). When this happened it seemed to me that impressions of events from earlier in the book were out of sync to the events. The book was far too long (and I was reading it on a Kindle) for me to want to go back and check my memory of events even though I thought the author was not being fair.

This for me has been the most frustrating and least rewarding of George's novels. While well-written, TRAITOR is too complicated for its own good. There are far too many characters --- I was forced for the first time in my reading life to jot character names down in the back of the book --- and, worse, Lynley and Havers have only minor roles in the story. We spend more time in the heads of minor characters than we do with Lynley and Havers, and that is a huge loss. George continues to leap about maddeningly chapter to chapter --- from one character to another, one perspective to another --- for no good reason. In four successive chapters we might be looking at the world from four different characters' perspectives --- three of whom might be "minor". It's annoying, because it doesn't actually improve the drama. It weakens it. Indeed this habit is at odds with the building of tension and suspense. It's an example of her "novelistic" ambitions getting in the way of writing good crime fiction. For example, I just finished a chapter in which I was afforded the rare treat of spending some time in the head of Inspector Lynley. In the chapter, he stumbled upon something that could be an important discovery, and he was beginning to mull over the implications. Things were actually getting interesting, that is. I began the next chapter expecting to continue along with Lynley and this new train of thought/evidence, but instead George switched the perspective to that of one of the minor characters, completely ruining the narrative and dramatic momentum. It's very frustrating. These books could have been brilliant had Ms. George a stronger editor. As they are, her novels are lost somewhere in the space between good crime fiction and the the modernist novel.

This was disappointing and, I hate to say it, quite dull at times. The plot is convoluted (the killer was easy to figure out) and the style was weird-Gideon the whiny, unlikeable violin player who can't remember his music, is pathetic. By the time I got 2/3 of the way through I was sick of him. The stage father was a cardboard cutout stereotype and unbelievable. I wanted way more police procedure and less of Gideon's predictable, cringe-worthy journal.

It feels like Ms. George got sick of the book while she was writing it. It ends with such an unbelievable whimper.

I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone.

For parents and teachers: includes child abuse, sexual scenes, both heterosexual and homosexual. Some cursing.

I liked previous Inspector Lynley books, but this one was disappointing. As others have noted, it's too long and too slow. It seemed to take forever for an actual plot to start. Gideon's journal entries were extremely annoying; their only purpose seemed to be as an easy way to give the reader back story and exposition. The old adage, "Show, don't tell," applies here.

Lynely and Havers took a backseat in this story, which wouldn't have been bad if the main characters had been likeable, or at least interesting, but none of them were. Gideon's self-centeredness is at least understandable as the coddled child prodigy. However every single character was selfish, immature, whiney and obsessed with sex. Lynley himself even got annoying in parts. I don't need every character to be likeable, but this was just ridiculous. I think the most likeable characters were Alfie the Alsatian and Peach the Dauchshund. And speaking of the sex, there was too much of it, it was far too graphic and served no purpose to the story at all, especially the subplot (though one can hardly call it a "subplot" since there was no actual plot) with James-of-the-ever-changing-last-name. His entire character could have been left out with no difference to the story whatsoever. It was simply disgusting.

As other reviews have said, the ending was terrible. No resolution to anything.

I would say that the only people who should even consider reading this book are die-hard Inspector Lynley fans, but those have probably already read it. So do yourself a favor and skip it. As it is, I'm sincerely glad I only borrowed this book from the library and didn't buy it.

Book 11 in the Inspector Lynley series

"A traitor to Memory" is a complex novel, large in scope and one that encompasses the psyches of many of its characters. Unlike the previous novels, Lynley and Harvers take a back seat to let Gideon be the star.

I will be brief in my summary; this story is intricate and over 1000 pages, it includes hidden agendas, secrets in the closet and a fair amount of danger.

It opens with the death of Eugenie Davis in a deliberate hit and run "accident". Superintendent Malcom Webberly asks Detective Constable Barbara Havers and Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley of New Scotland Yard to collaborate in the investigation of this gruesome vehicular homicide. Webberly has a special interest in the victim, twenty years earlier; he was the lead investigator in a tragic bathtub drowning of a two year old girl, daughter of Eugenie Davis. Their new investigation leads them to a wealth of suspects and early on they discover solving the present murder requires them to revisit and solve the nagging unanswered questions on Eugenie's daughter's untimely death...

Meanwhile, Gideon, an accomplished violinist also Eugenie's son, is struggling to overcome his sudden brain freeze and inability to play. His therapist takes him through his childhood memories and has him record them in a journal in an effort to stimulate hidden secrets. Unfortunately, this long drawn-out affair offers little to the plot; the never-ending chapters are wordy and considerably slow paced.

This novel is not your usual Ms. George murder and police procedural mystery. It attempts to delve deeper into the human psyche and explores the delicate side of memory frailties, the make believe lies we tell ourselves and the bonds formed within a dysfunctional family. Although it basically remains a whodunit, it is not as captivating as her previous novels. The twists and turns create confusion instead of intrigue and suspense, seeing the whole picture becomes a challenge. The plot has many loose ends, threads were started and dropped, and characters disappeared in limbo leaving a void in continuity. Lynley and Havers played a small role in this investigation and I missed the camaraderie between them and the chemistry they always bring to Ms. George's novels.

There is a difference between 1000 long pages and 1000 exciting pages...need I say more.

This 700+ page psychological mystery in the Inspector Lynley series has much going for it: strong recurring characters, interesting minor characters, complex plot, and excellent writing (more about George’s strong sense of dialog here). But rather too many rehashes of the potential murder suspects–and too much memory-groping by the main non-detective character, violinist Gideon Davies. Took a while to realize (my fault) that the interspersed entries from the diary Gideon keeps for his psychiatrist began at an earlier time and moved forward somewhat behind the main detective story. They cover several months, whereas the main plot resolves in a few days. As a result, “who knew what when” became difficult to track. Admirably risky plot device. Liked the ambiguous ending, too.

Violin virtuoso Gideon Davies (common referred to as Gideon) walks off the stage during a concert. He finds that he's lost the music and cannot play again. With the encouragement of his mentor, Gideon undergoes a long psychiatric treatment designed to bring him back to the concert stage. His therapist asks him to write his personal history, and much of the book focuses on these fragmentary memories . . . as he digs up his repressed memories.

While that alone would be enough for a novel, Ms. George also has a murder mystery for us. Someone is running over people who were connected to the death of Gideon's Down's-Syndrome sister 20 years earlier. The timing is curious because the nanny who was convicted of murder for the sister's death has just emerged from prison. Is it revenge time?

I finished the book feeling disappointed. While the character development is fascinating and thorough, the book did go on much too long. The mystery also is pretty obvious . . . except that Ms. George chooses to scatter the information in deliberately confusing ways. If the story had been developed in a straightforward way, there would have been no mystery.

I didn't really want to know as much about these characters as Ms. George chose to share with me. As in some of her earlier books, Ms. George seems to find it fascinating to describe people who have no inner life in great detail. I find that unconvincing. I think even selfish, narrow people are more complex than Ms. George makes them.

Ms. George does reward her loyal readers by revealing new aspects concerning the backgrounds of Lynley, Havers and their colleagues. Nkata emerges as a real character for the first time. This process of new revelations and character development is abetted by having four narrators, Gideon, Lynley, Havers and Nkata.

~ - ~
~ ~First, naturally, the lowdown for addicts of the Inspector Lynley/Sergeant Havers series: If you are a fan of Sergeant Barbara Havers, like I, you may be disappointed. She has a very small role in this story. However, we do come to know Inspector Lynley's other assistant, Winston Nkata, who does have an interesting and difficult role in the story. Tommy Lynley also, is facing some changes in his personal life.
This story focuses less on the detectives than many of the others in the series. Most of the story is seen through the eyes of a member of the family close to the crime. A young violinist, who has had a career as a prodigy, is suddenly unable to play. He is searching his soul and his memory for reasons for this block. He unearths much more than he expected, the history of a death in his family when he was just a child. Does he remember anything about it? Or are the faint memories that begin, and he clings to, as much fabrication as the stories he's been told? This becomes critical has murder strikes his family again, now in the present.
~ ~ This George mystery is much more focused on an individual close to the crime than the others in the series. In this respect, it is more like "Playing for the Ashes" than more recent novels.
While less focus on the detectives was a little disappointing to me as a Havers fan, this was still a fascinating story. As always, her strength is in showing the complexity of the best and worst of human motives. She fills her stories with people we would love to hate, if they weren't so uncomfortably human, and full of some of the same faults we could find in ourselves. All in all, an absorbing read. 5 stars *****!

This is a long novel. There are some thicker-LOOKING hardbounds, on my shelf, but they're in bigger type. "Novel length" is sometimes defined to be 60-80,000 words. By my best estimate, "Oliver Twist" is about 170,000 words; "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," 220,000 words; Stephen King's "Insomnia," 300,000. Well, "A Traitor To Memory" tips the scales at 365,000. I can't imagine what the paperback is going to look like.
It's taken me almost two weeks to read this book, and I've been spending a lot more of my life reading it than I usually spend in reading. I was immersed in it, loved every minute of it, and I'm at loose ends now that I've finished it and have to return to normal life.
It is a very complicated plot with an awful lot of characters. As usual in whodunnits, I am totally unable to keep track of the "puzzle" aspects. So I cannot tell on what page Ellery Queen could have solved the puzzle. What I can say is that, reading it for pleasure--well, actually racing through it because I was continuously desperate to find out what came next--I was gratified at the skill with which Elizabeth George blends the threads and keeps everything comprehensible. I couldn't figure out whodunnit--I never can--but I never had any problems remembering who's who. Not even the guy with three aliases--four if you count his cybersex "handle," TongueMan.
The character development is wonderful, and even though the mystery plot requirements mean that many of the characters need to be very unpleasant people, this is brought out gradually. The plot-specific characters seem real, I get involved with them and care about them. My right brain is completely committed to believing they are real long before my left brain notices that they are one-dimensional monsters devised to function as cogs in the plot machine.
For whatever reasons Elizabeth George lives in California and chooses to write British mysteries. Being an Anglophile myself I enjoy this, although sometimes it does get a little overdone--you know the sort of thing, "As she listened to the telly, Adele put the Horlick's on the Aga. 'Bollocks, the biscuits have gone missing. Nigel dear, could you pop round to the baker's and fetch some scones?''" In this novel, she has a wonderful American character and, in a wonderful bit of transatlantic cultural virtuosity, gives her a slightly exaggerated Americanism, an American seen through British eyes. I really like Libby, the American in question, and it just wrings my heart to see her becoming involved with that rotten Gideon...
Thomas Lynley, Lady Helen, Deborah and Simon St. James make appearances as relatively minor characters; the soap opera among these continuing series characters does get advanced a bit. There's not much about Barbara Havers' personal life in this one; I was hoping to find out how she's getting on with her Pakistani neighbors, especially Haddiyah. On the other hand, we get to know Winston Nkata personally in this one and something seems to be developing between him and one of the mystery-plot characters.
I have thought of forming a Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Barbara Havers. In the universe George has created she sometimes seems to be playing the part of Job. But George is merciful to Havers in this book. So many characters in this tragic novel end up disappointed or far worse; by comparison what happens to Barbara seems quite bearable.
I'm going to ask my wife to pay attention near the when she reads this, and double-check for me. It does seem as if there are a number of loose threads that are not essential to the plot but that one wishes would be tied up. As the book ends, there are least two characters who I am no absolutely certain whether they are alive or dead. In fact, even at the end I am not absolutely, positively 100% sure that I know whodunnit or what the motive was. I don't think clearer-headed readers will find this a problem, though.
It does occur to me that George is one of a number of authors for whom I wish someone would compile an detailed index. You know (just inventing here, no spoilers) Ian Clarke: discovers Celia is pregnant, p. 123; buries secateurs in the garden, p. 146; suspects Denis, p. 156; interviewed by Havers, p. 205; lies to Nkata about photo album, p. 280...

Elizabeth George's latest entry in her Lynley/Havers series is "A Traitor to Memory". It differs from her previous novels in that it is more intensely psychological and less plot driven. In fact, a great portion of the book is given over to the reminiscences of a psychiatric patient to his doctor.
The patient is Gideon Davies, a former child prodigy and a virtuoso on the violin. He has suddenly lost his ability to play the violin and he cannot understand what has happened to him. In an effort to recapture his musical gift, Gideon starts to see a psychiatrist, Dr. Rose, who urges him to delve into his past in order to come to terms with whatever it is that is troubling him.
Gideon's past is a tortured and convoluted one. He had a developmentally disabled sister named Sonia who drowned at the age of two and the circumstances surrounding her death have never been completely clarified. Gideon's parents, Richard and Eugenie, divorced after their daughter's death, and Gideon's grandfather suffered from recurring bouts of madness throughout his later life. To top it all off, Gideon's father is a stern taskmaster. He is obsessed with Gideon's talent, and he insists that Gideon's music is the most important thing in their lives.
Inspector Lynley and Constable Havers become involved in the lives of the Davies family when a series of hit and run "accidents" prove to be murder and it becomes increasingly obvious that the events surrounding Sonia's death twenty years ago have reached into the present.
As usual, George creates realistic dialogue and a large, fascinating cast of characters. These include Gideon's obsessive father, the violinist's bohemian girlfriend Libby (who tries to rescue him from his torment), and Katja Wolff, the German nanny who took the blame for Sonia's death. Was Katja really at fault for Sonia's death or was she protecting someone else?
Unfortunately, "A Traitor to Memory" falters at the end. At seven hundred pages, the book goes on at least a hundred pages too long and the plot begins to unravel. There are too many murders that muddy the waters, and the characters act too melodramatically to be believed. However, even with these flaws, Elizabeth George effectively explores the terrain of dysfunctional families, the dangers of obessession, and a favorite topic of mystery writers--how events of the distant past often have disastrous consequences many years later. With all of its flaws, I recommend "A Traitor to Memory" to fans of complex psychological suspense.

I�ve read all of Elizabeth George�s mysteries and most of them are excellent. But her latest was a disappointment, not because it was without merit, but because it failed to maintain momentum and ultimately got bogged down under its own weight. This was particularly unfortunate because the author clearly wanted this novel to transcend the mystery genre. And to a great extent she succeeded, at least in the first half. The story itself is not all that complex, though some readers have complained about the switching from the inner-narrative of a major character to the author�s third person narrative. There are some connections between characters that seem a bit far-fetched, but that�s not all that unusual in a mystery. The real problem with the plot development is that there are simply too many threads to the story, and even a writer with Elizabeth George�s gifts is unable to hold things together. Some reviewers have criticized the author for including gay characters and cybersex, but I give her credit for pushing the boundaries and keeping her work current. She also gets points for introducing some interesting new characters, though she let too many of them drop out of the story when she was ready to bring the plot to a conclusion. So, the author gets three stars for having the courage to stretch herself, even if the final product does not live up to its early promise.

I will agree with previous reviewers that it wasn't too difficult to figure out who the guilty party is in this novel. But the joy of this book is not in the mystery, but in the writing.
I've read several of Ms George's Thomas Lynley novels prior to this one, and I have to say that I've never learned as much about Lynley, his wife Helen, and the other principal characters in this series as I have after finishing this entry. She describes their emotions and their lives in extremely intimate detail, and were it not for the fact that the main plotline of the book involves a series of murders I would seriously consider thinking of this as a novelization of a high-class "Eastenders".
And even though the murderer's identity was clear from about the midpoint of the book I have to confess that some of the red herrings George inserted did throw me for a while. The insertion of Gideon Davies' diary/notebook was also a nice touch, though the timeline of those sections was a bit confusing at times.
If you're looking for a well-done mystery, I would suggest you look at one of George's earlier books. But if you're looking for a well-rounded, well-done novel of any kind, then even at 1000+ pages I would heartily recommend this entry in the series.

Elizabeth George's new novel is a difficult, complex and exasperating read. She adopts the multiple narration point of view she used to great effect in Playing for the Ashes, and makes things more difficult for herself (and the reader) by making this book (initially, at least) a double murder mystery. Chronologically, the first murder takes place twenty years before the present; a young baby dies and the nanny goes to prison for the murder. The second murder is that of the baby's mother, Eugenia Davies, who is the victim of a hit-and-run driver - who takes the time to run over her several times to ensure that she is dead. Other elements in the mix would take the entire length of the review to enumerate fully, but they include a child prodigy violinist with mental problems, his stage-father parent, the recently-freed nanny and her lover, a violin teacher with secrets of his own, an American girl who drives for a delivery service, .... etc. It's a huge cast of characters, but wait! there's more! Not only do each of these characters have his or her own story line, but the central character (the prodigy) takes up about a third of the book with his conversations with his counselor, who is trying to find out why he has suddenly lost the ability to play the violin. Add into the mx the fact that the book jumps around chronologically (often without warning; I've never seen so many different levels of flashbacks), and even adds in some dream sequences, and the end result is easily the most complex mysteries, and one of the most complex books, I have ever read.
I believe that Elizabeth George is experimenting here. I think that she really wanted to create something new, and not settle into a formula (which many of her fans including myself would be happy with). Like many ambitious artistic experiments, this fails and succeeds at the same time; I can't recommend it because I think it has a lot of flaws, but I admire much of it.
...
So, in the end, I admire this book for the effort that went into it, and the guts it took to branch off into areas and styles different from the stock tea cozy. But I enjoyed it less than almost any Elizabeth George book, and was disappointed. I don't want her to be a formula writer, but one can branch into other styles without being rococo.

Elizabeth George is one of those talented writers who can fully develop her characters & build a story around them. The three central characters of the Davies family have been developed beautifully.
I can't remember when I've seen so many dysfunctional characters in a book. Yes, even the coppers. But, that's what gives the novel it's draw for the reader. It's very long & at times very drawn out; at times repetitive.
Some have mentioned there are many loose ends. There are some. Ms. George covers some in subsequent novels. Others are basically superfluous.
Reading this novel will require attention. It's dense & very detailed. I found the book's ending very good. If you miss certain details in the book, the ending can become only mediocre or disappointing.
This novel is for those who want to really sink their teeth into a suspense story.

I've found it amazing how a woman from California can write British mystery novels. But, Ms. George does it oh, so well

Eugenie Davies death was no accident. Someone struck her down with their car, and then continued to run over body, leaving nothing behind but a gruesome crime scene, and many questions.
What was Eugenie doing on the street that rainy night? Why was she carrying the name of the name that found her body? Who in her life would want her dead? And, is there a connection between her death and the brilliant violinist who lost the ability to play?
Detective Thomas Lynley wants answers, and once his investigation has begun he will discover more questions without answers, one of which will challenge him both professionally, and personally.
For the first time, Lynley's career is put on the line, as his superior, the man who put him on this case, had a connection to Eugenie Davies many years before in a major criminal trial.
Lynley enlists the help of his long time partners, Barbara Havers and Winston Nkata to untangle the web of secrets surrounding Eugenie's death.
'A Traitor To Memory' is a good, but VERY, VERY long mystery. Those familiar with George's previous works may be a bit surprised at the slow start the novel has, but as each secret is revealed, a new piece of the intricate puzzle falls into place. Well written (as usual), featuring a large cast of characters, and many plots twists, 'A Traitor To Memory' is a good book for a long weekend.
Elizabeth George has made a career of writing smart mysteries, that contain interesting characters, and gripping plots, and her latest is no exception. Fans should enjoy this new addition to the Lynley series despite it's length, and somewhat slow pacing.
Nick Gonnella

It's hard waiting for a new Elizabeth George book, so the length of her latest felt like a reward for being so patient. Her writing falls into the category of "good things I can't get enough of," and very little of it turned out to be extraneous.
The story requires a gradual unfolding of the characters' histories in order to understand their perceptions and motivations. Ultimately, the most bizarre behavior makes perfect sense in the context of each character's limitations. And just when you think one of them has succeeded in transcending those limitations there's an ironic - and inevitable - twist.
George's ongoing characters take a backseat here, and that seems like a wise decision. Their presence gives us a touchstone in a story of people trying to come to terms with the past. We already know them as the good guys, yet their shared history haunts the present with enough angst to fuel a melodrama. Is it any wonder then that the less stable characters in the book have trouble escaping the events that shaped them? Altogether a satisfying foray into the psychological mystery genre.

Elizabeth George is one of those talented writers who can fully develop her characters & build a story around them. The three central characters of the Davies family have been developed beautifully.
I can't remember when I've seen so many dysfunctional characters in a book. Yes, even the coppers. But, that's what gives the novel it's draw for the reader. It's very long & at times very drawn out; at times repetitive.
Some have mentioned there are many loose ends. There are some. Ms. George covers some in subsequent novels. Others are basically superfluous.
Reading this novel will require attention. It's dense & very detailed. I found the book's ending very good. If you miss certain details in the book, the ending can become only mediocre or disappointing.
This novel is for those who want to really sink their teeth into a suspense story.

I've found it amazing how a woman from California can write British mystery novels. But, Ms. George does it oh, so well

Eugenie Davies death was no accident. Someone struck her down with their car, and then continued to run over body, leaving nothing behind but a gruesome crime scene, and many questions.
What was Eugenie doing on the street that rainy night? Why was she carrying the name of the name that found her body? Who in her life would want her dead? And, is there a connection between her death and the brilliant violinist who lost the ability to play?
Detective Thomas Lynley wants answers, and once his investigation has begun he will discover more questions without answers, one of which will challenge him both professionally, and personally.
For the first time, Lynley's career is put on the line, as his superior, the man who put him on this case, had a connection to Eugenie Davies many years before in a major criminal trial.
Lynley enlists the help of his long time partners, Barbara Havers and Winston Nkata to untangle the web of secrets surrounding Eugenie's death.
'A Traitor To Memory' is a good, but VERY, VERY long mystery. Those familiar with George's previous works may be a bit surprised at the slow start the novel has, but as each secret is revealed, a new piece of the intricate puzzle falls into place. Well written (as usual), featuring a large cast of characters, and many plots twists, 'A Traitor To Memory' is a good book for a long weekend.
Elizabeth George has made a career of writing smart mysteries, that contain interesting characters, and gripping plots, and her latest is no exception. Fans should enjoy this new addition to the Lynley series despite it's length, and somewhat slow pacing.
Nick Gonnella

The latest entry in the Elizabeth George libretto is a fascinating yarn through Londoners' minds and pasts. This is definitely one of her longer books (I cannot believe it only took her 10 months to write--pure genius, she is), but to this reader, did not drag at one point through the 700+ pages of suspense.
I am not a reviewer that needs to recap the story. the store does that quite fine. I believe we are here to rate the books and give our opinions, so what it is worth, here is mine.
Amazingly enough, Ms. George is always able to create real people out of even the most minor characters. You feel as if you know the lives of someone who is only featured on one or two pages by her magnificent descriptions. She is truly a master at this. One never knows if the person mentioned in two paragraphs on page, lets say, 246 will be a figure at the end. This is how she keeps us hooked. The Character of Gideon is revealed through a diary of flashbacks, much like her character of Olivia in Playing for the Ashes. This weaves throughout the story and helps the puzzle fit together (almost) at the very end. Helen Lynley is thankfully not quite as annoying as she has been in previous novels. (Perhaps her expectant state will mellow her a bit in future novels) and her interaction with Lynley seems as a real marriage for the first time since I have read through the relationship from the beginning. Barbara is back at her most cynical, while Winston Nkata bares some teeth in his first major entry in a George novel.
The end???? Read it twice, perhaps three times. The last 20 pages seem to tie the story together. But I will admit myself to being confused on the very last page. Perhaps I looked into in incorrectly, but it seems to put everything said in the final chapters back and focus on a completely new suspect. Or, were we witnessing a flashback to his childhood acted out, unfortunately as an adult? What is the blue door? (I will also admit, I am still confused by this one. It is explored, but not deep enough to find the true meaning). Any help, readers? Email me.....
All in all, a wonderful book. I absolutely adore you, Elizabeth George and am now saddened that I must wait another year to read the next installment. Oh well, perhaps I'll go back to In the Presence of the Enemy or Well Schooled in Murder and re-read them. One can never read too much of these characters, can we

It's hard waiting for a new Elizabeth George book, so the length of her latest felt like a reward for being so patient. Her writing falls into the category of "good things I can't get enough of," and very little of it turned out to be extraneous.
The story requires a gradual unfolding of the characters' histories in order to understand their perceptions and motivations. Ultimately, the most bizarre behavior makes perfect sense in the context of each character's limitations. And just when you think one of them has succeeded in transcending those limitations there's an ironic - and inevitable - twist.
George's ongoing characters take a backseat here, and that seems like a wise decision. Their presence gives us a touchstone in a story of people trying to come to terms with the past. We already know them as the good guys, yet their shared history haunts the present with enough angst to fuel a melodrama. Is it any wonder then that the less stable characters in the book have trouble escaping the events that shaped them? Altogether a satisfying foray into the psychological mystery genre.

This is a wonderful series with fascinating characters: Lynley, his wife, Havers, St. James & Deborah but I had a really hard time getting through this book. I must say that the main reason this entry did not appeal to me is the device George uses of one of the "guest character's" (Gideon) diary. I found it, well, boring, to read his diary. Maybe I just did not like his persona or maybe I found it confusing that the diary & the regular chapters were not written simultaneously - I was confused sometimes because he would be writing about things that had not happened yet or had happened earlier in the book.

I was also disappointed in the fact that some loose ends from earlier books were not mentioned in this one - particularly Haver's potential boyfriend neighbor or her mother.

There was a new character introduced that I hope to see in future books - a potential love interest for Nkata.

Will still pick up the next book to read but won't have as much enthusiasm as I usually do.

Elizabeth George, like some other writers, is giving us longer and longer books as her reputation and sales grow. This book will require a commitment of time from the reader, but spending time with familiar characters Lynley, Havers, and Nkata will keep you reading. Deborah and St. James appear very little in this one, although a longstanding, troubling issue between Deborah and Lynley is resolved.
"Traitor to Memory" has families at its heart: Family love, pride, misunderstanding, sacrifice, and secrets provide its plot. As in all Elizabeth George mysteries, sometimes characters with the best motives see their intentions go awry. As Lynley strives to uncover the truths behind hit-and-run murders, he also struggles with his feelings about impending fatherhood. Nkata works to find his balance between getting the truth from an attractive character, and his own feelings about her.
Carefully crafted, full of thoughtful descriptions of the inner states of its diverse characters, "Traitor to Memory" will be engrossing and satisfying to all George fans.

I've read all of Elizabeth George's Thomas Lynley/Barbara Havers series, and I must say that this is the weakest of the bunch. One of the aspects that I've always enjoyed in this mystery series is the attention that the author paid to the lives of the two main characters. In A Traitor to Memory, that seems to have flown by the wayside, and Havers and Lynley are given rather slipshod treatment. The small sections devoted to their private lives seem perfunctory and forced.
In addition, I felt that the mystery itself wasn't as strong in this novel. The timeline for one character's novel is not in sync with the other chapters, which I found to be quite confusing when I realized what was going on. The ending comes out of nowhere and leaves many questions unanswered, which, in itself isn't a crime, but these questions needed to be answered in order for the book to make sense.
Overall though, A Traitor to Memory kept me glued to its pages. Regardless of the book's weaknesses, Ms. George is a fantastic British mystery writer. I look forward to her next book, hoping that she'll take time and care with it, and especially to the BBC adaptation of the first book in her series, to appear on PBS some time in early 2002.

This is actually the first Elizabeth George mystery I have read, so I am relieved to read so many other reviews telling me this is one of her weakest works. The ending to this one was quite disappointing. Until I got there, however, the story was doing a fine job of holding my attention and interesting me in its many well-drawn characters.

It was because those characters were so well-drawn that I was so angered by the last few pages of this book. I felt that one character does something very startlingly stupid near the end. It was not at all in keeping with any of her previous behavior and it resulted in a stunningly grim ending to the story. That ending seemed like it had been tacked on because some marketing department determined that shocking and bleak equals highbrow and arty. Sometimes shocking and bleak just comes across as forced and irritating.

This is my first book by Elizabeth George. The sheer size made it a daunting task to finish. The language flows smoothly. I could turn page after page with no problem. Some chapters are written in first person singular (I) while others are from the point of view of different characters.
Let me try to remember how many characters are there. Gideon, Pitchford (who has changed his name twice before), Katja, Sarah Jane, Eugenie, Richard, Jill, Webberly, Libby, Lynly, Yasmin, McKay, another attorney (I just completed the book and I don't remember few names), Malcolm, Frances, Winston Nkata, Cecilia, Katie Waddington, a prison guard, Hillier, Deborah, Helen. If the character doesn't hang around in my mind the characterization is poor. While Gideon's character was interesting to begin with I got bored by his self-centeredness and ranting. All the time he seems to confront his father Richard `you lied to me,' and `I knew it' - page after page.
Some chapters are written from the point of view of minor characters. Like in one chapter there is a whole back story of Pitchford and in another that of Winston Nkata. The point of view changes too often and few times I had to go back to realize `who is thinking this?'
It was confused how characters change from being heterosexual to homosexual. For, Katja Wolfe obviously had sex with a man to give birth to a son and then she is shown to be lesbian. Yasmin was married to a man and has a son but now she is lesbian.
I was also upset because I didn't see the point of showing another deformed child - Victoria. To me, it achieved nothing.
Usually when I read a murder mystery I start guessing who could be the murderer. In this novel I didn't even try because I didn't care who the murderer was. I always wondered why the victim of a hit and run invariably runs in front of the car, rather than running sideways. Richard being pushed in front of a bus and having minor fracture didn't sound authentic. Who can take the risk of falling in front of a bus in a calculated way that one can only get a minor fracture.
Demanding money to admit murder and go to prison for twenty years? It didn't convince me. It is human to value freedom more than a paid jail sentence.
In short, too many characters and they have long back stories. New characters emerge up to the end of the novel (Noreen McKay). The time frame during which all events occur is confusing. I had some sympathy for Libby's character but disliked all others. Since there are characters who has no connection to the main plot the story gets diluted. There are loose ends left. The end didn't impress me.
About the craft, I already mentioned the change of point of view not only in a scene but even in a single paragraph. She uses adverbs and dilutes the strength of the prose. She also uses verb qualifiers (Richard said heavily, Richard countered, Jill pleaded). The book also has long paragraphs in dialogs, some more than half a page. I also noticed two exclamation marks.
Since I had great expectations from Elizabeth George because I had heard so much about this great writer, at the end of the book I had disappointment.
To her credit though, there are some great sentences and paragraphs and beats in the dialogue. And above all I could finish the book of over a thousand pages. And I give her credit for that.
I don't think this book has ever been edited.
Will I read any of her books again? Yes, I'll give her one more chance because her language flows smoothly.

400 pages too long. BORING and SLOW all 1006 pages of it. Worst book I have read all year, This is my first George novel and my last!
I am surprised she didn't bore herself writing this miserable tome. When I finished I tossed it in the garbage!

This was my first Elizabeth George book, and I was very pleasantly surprised. It was given to me as a gift, and I thank the person for getting me started in this series. Now, I will need to begin at the beginning. Ms. George can write a very good psychological thriller - along the lines of Minette Walters, but less creepy. She is an excellent author, and really knows how to develop her characters. I find I really want to get to know her two protaganists - Lynley and Havers. As I was reading it was difficult at first to keep the two storylines apart, but once I mastered that, it went much better. I felt so bad for Gideon. What a terrible thing to suppress things in a child. It causes all kinds of problems for the adult. The book is long, but it goes quickly. The writing is excellent - a true thinking-person's mystery.

Like many of the other reviewers here, I find this novel disappointing after some of the very high standards George has set in previous novels.
I was not jolted by the shifts in time or the disjointed narration at all--that worked just fine for me. I was mostly and absolutely disappointed by what I have seen George do very well in the past: really explain characters and their motivations so that everything makes sense.
This work, however, has several characters who seem to behave inexplicably and the conclusion is so inconclusive. I mean, yes, there's a conclusion, but one keeps asking Why? So what? What for? How does this make sense? And, finally, what about all those other characters who just quietly dropped out of the story.
I agree with other reviewers who suggest tighter editting; although I was never bored and I did not feel myself lapsing into longeurs, I felt cheated at the end by the lack of conclusion. You have about 700 pages and I feel that I want, and need, some sort of conclusion about the characters to whom we are introduced.
To the best of my knowledge, this lack of satisfactory closure is NOT a characteristic of George and I have never really felt disappointed before. Her book MISSING JOSEPH was the only one I really got bogged down in; A TRAITOR TO MEMORY did not bog me down, but I tossed it across the room when I was done well and truly disappointed.
Also I am not that brilliant and rarely try to guess the outcome of a mystery; this one just seemed very obvious to me from close to the beginning. Everything that seemed obvious turned out to be just that...obvious. I like to be tricked and played with by an intelligent mind.
Of course I plan to read the next George book when it comes out. Almost all prolific writers have a tendency to be uneven.

Normally Elizabeth George's mysteries range from solid to outstanding. This is the exception--a loonnnggg, dreary, depressing novel of superficial characters, irritating psychobabble, a dead obvious culprit and a dearth of what sustains the series, the wonderful interaction between detectives Lynley and Havers.
But what really makes this book bad is the poor editing. Any amateur could easily have cut this down to one-third its size and lost nothing important. And it sure would have saved the rest of some hours we'll never see again. Maybe George's usual editor was sunning herself in the South of France that month, but I suspect this is a symptom of a larger syndrome aflicting many successful authors. Once they become huge bestsellers they think they can do no wrong. What's a few extra 100, 200, 500 pages? After all, every golden word lodged in their word processor is like a drop of nectar from the gods that grateful fans will swallow with pleasure. Or something like that.
A more minor quibble but no less infuriating is the shiny cardboard cutout character of Libby, THE AMERICAN. I don't know if George is perpetuating groundless stereotypes in an attempt to apologize to British readers for the fact that she's an American writing London-based police procedurals. But I for one have never met anyone *real* who talks or thinks like Frank Zappa's Valley Girl. And I lived in L.A. for three years. I also lived in London for a while and know that even the British don't believe that crap about us.
You may love the rest of the series, but do yourself a big favor and avoid this one. I wish I had.

Ms. George is among my favorite British mystery novelists. One comes to care about her characters, and certainly look forward to meeting them again in future works. This is my second reading of Traitor To Memory, and even with more careful reading, the book was still thought-filled and exciting.

I share many of the same thoughts as expressed by other reviewers: the book is very long, it takes forever to get anywhere, there is virtually no resolution in the end (when it finally arrives!) Elizabeth George obviously can write, but she truly loses her way in this novel. Interesting side charactors are introduced, they stay for a moment, and then they disappear with no further mention. Even Katja Wolf, a character central to the plot line, is left completely out of the finish. This book takes a lot of reading to get nowhere. Ho-hum, skip it.

I cannot elaborate any better or further than the previous reviewers of A Traitor To Memory. Having read and enjoyed previous novels in the Lynley-Havers series, I entertained lofty expectations of this latest book by Elizabeth George. However, it required a supremely concerted effort to grind through the ponderous text, plough on through the cumbersome plot, and endure the maximum insult delivered in the conclusion of this tepid tome.
Back to P.D. James and beloved Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine for the holidays. I would advise fans to do likewise. Spend your precious reading time enjoying the masters of the genre or cozy up with a few of Sue Grafton's mysteries and your Christmas will be merry and bright.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I didn't mind the length because it gave George the space to let us get into the heads of several of the characters. I felt like she was showing the reader a side of each of her characters that would make him or her possibly the murderer. Each of the characters became a better and better candidate for murderer as their personality developed.
I liked the entertwining of the lives of the characters. This murder was definitely caused by the event that took place 20 years before and the changes that we see in the main characters in the first murder are credible.
I found the ending to be perfect. It showed the reader the heart of the murderer and was consistent with the personality developed throughout the book and yet the way it ended was a big surprise. From a psychological viewpoint it came full circle.

I have enjoyed George's other books tremendously and have purchased and reread them all, but this one is a huge disappointment--in every way. I felt like someone had implanted the brain of some vastly inferior writer into George's skull.
As other reviewers said, the book could have been written in less than half the number of pages--most likely with a much better result. I found it hard to care about any of the characters (other than Lynley and Havers, who made only brief appearances). It seemed that many totally unnecessary characters were introduced or introduced only to be dropped without followup. Storylines were introduced and the threads just dropped. The only interesting continuing storyline introduced is a possible romance for Nkata.
After wading through nearly 700 pages of extreme verbosity, crude sexual references, and overly whiney characters, the ending was a huge disappointment. I'll be getting the next George novel from the library. If it's as bad as this one, I won't feel bad about returning it unfinished.

I have read a number of Elizabeth George books and I liked this one the least. It is slow-moving, confusing and at some points, just plain dull.
My biggest complaint, however, is with her research. There are several medical and genetics mistakes in this work (as there are in her some of her other works) that make me wonder about her research methods.

- An "imperforate ..." at eight months?! WRONG (Did no one notice that the child hadn't dirtied her diaper (or nappy) in eight months?)
- A balanced translocation of ONE chromosome? WRONG.
- A balanced translocation leading to NO livebirths. WRONG.
If she can get these wrong, what else is in error? While these are all minor storypoints, I believe that they cast doubt on all facts in the novel. Ms. George seems to like to incorporate medical/genetics knowledge into her books but should get appropriate professional input.
While these are minor points, they made a boring book insufferable. Her editor needs to start double check her facts and chopping boring storylines. If this book had been three hundred pages shorter, it might have been endurable.

A Traitor to Memory, Elizabeth George's most recent mystery, continues the pattern of mystery plus soap opera. Thomas Lynley, aristocrat (handsome, rich, sensitive), Barbara Havers, working class (obligatory chip on shoulder), and Winston Nkata, ethnic (Brixton-bred, Caribbean descent, loves his mother) plod on for the London Metropolitan Police Force. The class and culture mix work better in some of Ms George's mysteries than others; some are good examinations of class and culture. Others look like Dorothy Sayers on a bad day. This is one of the latter. The mystery centres on a hit and run homicide. Gideon, 28 year old ex-child prodigy, has forgotten all he knows of music. Part of the novel takes the form of a diary he is keeping for his psychiatrist, examining his childhood. We discover the victim of the homicide is his mother, who abandoned the family when he was ten years old. Gideon does not remember his music, but he does remember a great deal of other material: the drowning of a previously forgotten two year old sister, the behaviour of the adults around him at the time. His sister's nanny, convicted of the murder of the child, is released from prison at the same time. There's a nice mix of possible suspects, but the mystery element is very predictable. We guess who dun it early on; the red herrings are blatant. Ms George has several recurrent themes in her books: children, and the desire for children, the parent child relationship, particularly adult children and their parents. These form an important part of the book. Gideon's younger sister is mentally and physically impaired. How does a parent balance the obligations towards this child with obligations to other children? Ms George tries to deal with serious themes, but the treatment seems formulaic, particularly in contrast to some of her earlier treatment of the same issues. George's books need to be read in order. Her major characters mature, have affairs and break them off, get married...and her police officers continue, in this book, to have private lives. If you are an Elizabeth George fan, I'd recommend the book -- to keep up with what's happening on the home front with Lynley, if for no other reason. But I found the book disappointing.

This departure from my favorite mystery writer's style was not worth the read. The ending was extremely disappointing and after I read it, I thought, "Oh, no, she's never going to write a good book again, and I loved her so!" but fortunately this wasn't true. Whew. Sigh of relief. I would not have minded the length, if I didn't hate reading the interview- and inner process-type chapters. Plus it was spotty and disconnected feeling and there were few people to like. I would rather discover the creepy character's motivations by just doing my own story deciphering. Anyway, skip this one if you want a typically great E. George mystery novel.

I do love a good Elizabeth George mystery, but this one was just too darned long for me. If it had been more compelling, the length wouldn't have bothered me. But the fact that I figured out "whodunnit" in the first couple of chapters made the slog through the next 700 pages a little tedious.

I also found myself getting lost in the timeline -- the storyline would move forward, then Gideon's writing would go back to the distant past as well as to a few days behind the rest of the story.

Overall, it's well-written and well-plotted. Just a bit too fiberful for this reader.