Careless in Red (Inspector Lynley Book 16)

I was eagerly anticipating finding out what happened to Inspector Lynley after the tragic death of his wife, Helen. Elizabeth George brings him back into police work with a plot that twists and turns and keeps the reader guessing "who done it" all the way. With her usual artistry, George draws each character with depth and consistency, allowing the reader a look into the psyche and motivations of the individual. So when Lynley finds the body of a cliff climber and is forced by the local detective to help solve the murder, we are drawn into the plot with a finely drawn picture of the murder victim's family, friends and acquaintances that keeps us wondering which of these actually committed the crime, since most had motive and opportunity.

I enjoyed the previous Inspector Lynley novels and I enjoyed this one more. The plot is somewhat convoluted and it is easy to forget who did what but we get to visit a fascinating part of Cornwall and it is well worth reading just to enjoy the people who live there and the strange lives they lead. Overall a book that I found hard to put down.

Elizabeth George is one of my favorite mystery writers. She lets you inside the mind of each character and takes you along in solving the crime. In this novel you feel Inspector Lynley's pain.
The crime is constructed detail upon detail.

Elizabeth George's latest mystery gets off to a slow start and seems to repeat her earlier work. As the story moves on, the pace picks up and the character development becomes more interesting and engaging. The strength of her work as always lies in her sense of place and her realistic and inticate psychological characterizations. This particular book was hilarious at times, using British vernacular. There were some loose ends by the time the story ended, but maybe that's the teaser for George's next book. We'll see. This book is definately a relaxing and enjoyable read, well worth while.

Here we have, to my mind, the writer of Elizabeth George saying, 'Wait, I think that I shall push the mystery off to the sides, and let the rest take center place.' So she does. We have the inspector who isn't an inspector. Havers way out of London. An investigation in which they don't investigate the central matters. Which doesn't matter when the writing is so good.

It's terrible to eagerly anticipate a novel only to finish it and feel absolutely nothing but let down. Like most on this board, I'm a huge Lynley and Havers fan. The series that describes their successful partnership and the unlikely but real relationship/friendship that springs from it bears little resemblance to what I have just read. Lynley understandably sleepwalks through this book. When Havers finally appears, she is really given nothing to do except jot down notes in her notebook. Instead, the author chooses to go off on tangents on every minor character which adds absolutely nothing to the plot or storyline. She sticks Lynley with a character who may or may not be a suspect and by the time the outcome is revealed, I could not have cared less! Such a huge disappointment to this Lynley/Havers fan!

This most recent offering in the series focused on Inspector Lynley of Scotland Yard is one of the best. It combines the stories of three different families and their lives on the Cornwall coast in a way that captures the reader. In addition there is the ongoing trauma of the life of the Inspector as he battles with the conflict between grief over the loss of his wife and his dedication to his profession. The connection between all of the character is the death of Santor Kerne.

One waits for the next Elizabeth George book. Never disappointed. Mystery genre but not whodunit. Instead, multiple mysteries interwoven. Characters that one cares about, a few that one comes to love. Most of all, exposition of modern British culture, across class, ethnicity, and communities. One wants to know the answers to the mysteries but one does not want the book to end.

Having read everything Ms. George has written, fiction and nonfiction, I am a fan. I bought both the Kindle and the hardback editions of Careless in Red in order to read the new novel quickly and also to own a hardback for Ms. George to autograph when she comes to our small town for a writer's conference in late May.

I am not a fan of this new novel. Granted most characters are believable and in the case of DI Hannaford darn right laudable, but the characters I most wanted fleshed out were merely the bare bones Ms. George used to hook long time readers into a largely sociological study of adolescent angst and midlife crisis set amongst British surfers and oversexed matrons. Even the smattering of antiquated vocabulary did little to earn my interest. (Although I do tip my hat to Ms. George's literary recognition of her move to western Washington State.)

If readers want to delve again into the lives of Lynley and Havers or if they want a complex whodunit, they'll be disappointed by Careless in Red. I confess to feeling more cheated by this entry in the Lynley series than by its predecessor. What Came Before He Shot Her can stand alone and may be appreciated as a deserved writing detour for the author of an otherwise satisfying British mystery series. Careless in Red continues down a path away from the original series and readers who have waited patiently for the reappearance of the author's central characters will be left wondering if Ms. George has left Sir Thomas by the wayside for good and all.

Ms. George has written of the differences between her serial mysteries and those of Agatha Christie. Ms. George reveals on her website that she chose to write about the development of her characters rather than engage in a "mental game" with readers. Ms. Christie's characters are "frozen in time" whereas Ms. George's characters will grow and change. Perhaps that is why I have found this particular novel so lacking. Lynley has been frozen on that terrible doorstep for George's readers for years now. Nothing new is revealed in the current novel that couldn't have been easily imagined by any devoted reader. That is the real failure of this novel. Ms. George has departed once too often from her own style to suit the devoted fan.

This novel which some have criticized as too lengthy probably was destined to be so in order to accomodate all the characters and the information connected to them. Admittedly, there are several men: Alan, Ben, Santo, Ray, Lynley and others; however, the main focus is on the females, of whom there is not a one who does not leave a great deal to be desired. Particularly repugnant are the viperine Bea Hannaford, repulsive and arrogant, the pathetic masochistic Tammy, the sluttish Dellen who has made many men miserable and while not stated, I could easily believe capable of incest with Santo, the miserable Daidre (not her real name), the foolish Madlyn and finally Kerra who seems to have been rescued by Alan's strength and wisdom. This is a shocking view of a small part of Britain, of the type of ugly and morbid literature favored by the warped creatures on both sides of the Atlantic who are titillated by the perverse and threatening, be it in the form of monsters, serial killers, rapists, sicarios, terrorists, or more apropos, the threat of economic collapse the Western World faces. I wondered at the characters of this novel, particularly the pathetic Lynley, and the ease with which he allowed himself to be pushed around by the abominable inspector, who actually had no right to require him to do anything other than provide proof of identity. I suspect this is another result of the sexual, moral and economic decay facing Britain, the US and many other nations which will prove Homo Sapiens to be as transitory a life form on this planet as the dinosaurs. A truly disgusting story with few redeeming features. I would never, ever bother reading anything else by this author and recommend that others do likewise.

This latest installment in the Inspector Lynley series has all of the things I've come to expect from Elizabeth George's pen: A dense plot, lots of scenery, people in various relationships having problems with one another, and at least one sexual deviant who reveals that he/she was sexually abused as a child.

Seriously, does anyone in Elizabeth George's world commit murder merely for monetary gain and/or power? She relies on sexual tension in her Lynley stories to an extent that it has become de rigueur. In this recent novel we have one teen in a rage because the first boy she slept with dumped her; that same teenage boy having numerous conquests of his own; at least two women engaged in casual sex with various men; several other characters with unrequited raging hormones; and those who aren't included in the foregoing are generally having problems with those who are.

There are no surprises in this story. Tension is what drives a story forward, and the author builds it as she always does, which means it is primarily within families. In the past she has focused on mothers and daughters; this time it's mainly about fathers and sons.

In addition to those characters just mentioned, we are not surprised that Thomas Lynley is drawn to an investigation because he just can't stop being a police officer; that Barbara Havers is portrayed as a gifted detective with no fashion sense and a good heart; and that Lynley is still feeling misunderstood by those who are not born into his world.

That said, it's still very well written and it's a good plot. We don't see much character development for Lynley or Havers (or for those not mentioned, such as Winston Nkata or the St. James couple), but that's no surprise considering the most important issue was Lynley coming to terms with his wife's death.

So, chalk this one up as a necessary sequel, look forward to the next installment, and pray to heaven the author doesn't try to turn the back story of this plot into a novel called, "What Came Before He Shagged Her."

Elizabeth George's fans have come to expect nothing short of perfection, and CARELESS IN RED is not a disappointment in craftsmanship, but it will ruffle a few feathers as Inspector Lynley moves on with his life post- Helen. I'd expect some protests. . . In no way is this novel comparable in emotional intensity to WHAT CAME BEFORE HE SHOT HER, but it is classic George and mystery writing just doesn't get much better than what she gives us.

Careless in Red: A Novel Possibly Elizabeth George's best novel yet with an intricately woven plot line that never drags. I'm looking forward to the next chapter in the life of Detective Superintendent Thomas Linley.

This is the best American mystery series. Period. And Lynley and Havers are back. So you'll read it because you've been a fan for twenty years.

The new Lynley/Havers novel, "Careless in Red," is a solid reintroduction to Lynley and Havers. This is the strongest series going, and I'm still a devoted fan. This one may not be in the top tier but, like her British counterpart, Ruth Rendell, when George is merely average she's still better than anyone else around.

No one writes the middle of a mystery better than George, although this one required that I make a character list, since "Careless in Red" has more than thirty characters with names and back stories. And Havers doesn't make an appearance until about page 200 and, when she does, she and Lynley aren't together on the page nearly often enough.

That criticism aside, this is like a cruise repositioning novel, where we see Lynley in transition from the unspeakable tragedy of the previous two-novel arc, and it's a psychologically plausible place for him to be. Yes, I missed Simon (and maybe even Deborah, too), but something about this book felt right, although I admit, like several other reviewers, that I expect a huge arc for Barbara and Thomas in the next novel, and a return to more familiar settings. I read these books more for the ongoing relationships than for the mysteries that fuel them, as I think many readers do. "Careless in Red" doesn't deliver fully on the Thomas/Barbara relationship, but I'll give George the artistic license to develop this transitional novel, in hopes that the next one will be more about the continuing characters.

The mystery itself in this book is about average; I found myself wishing that the motives for the murder by the various suspects would be as complex as in other George novels. There's less than the usual tension, which I think could have been heightened by more of the Lynley/Havers discussions of what "might" have happened, but the novel's structure prevents those from happening as often as they could, and George curiously omits several scenes where such discussions could have taken place.

As with Dame Rendell, I'll read anything Elizabeth George writes. At her best no one is better. And if you don't read this one you'll be missing whatever happens in the next.

Detective Superintendent Thomas Lynley has suffered a huge personal loss, and is walking the rugged cliffs of Cornwall to come to terms with it. "Careless in Red" is not only the story of his struggle with grief, it is the story of several families and their similar struggles, with a focus on the understandable (but vain) effort of parents to control the lives of their children.

In the course of his walk, Lynley finds the body of young Santo Kerne at the bottom of the cliff he had been climbing, and as the investigation of the death develops, the superintendent is drawn into it at the behest of local police Detective Inspector Bea Hannaford, who is having family problems of her own. DS Barbara Havers makes an appearance--and a somewhat unusual partner for DI Hannaford.

Cornwall and its surfing world are well handled in this new Lynley novel. (One minor complaint is that some terms of climbing are not explained.) While not all the characters are believable (voluptuous Dellen Kerne and her son Santo are among those who test that limit), most are fully rounded and lifelike; and several are very amusing. (I really savored DI Hannaford and company.) Some of the descriptive passages and dialogues are overwritten--meant, I think, to be poetic, but seeming instead over-literary. The resolution of the murder is not particularly satisfying, not because of the identity of the murderer, but because of the final mechanics of the solution.

I found the novel very enjoyable, and if you are a Lynley and Havers fan, I think you will too. The complications of parenthood are nicely explored, and the bittersweet consequences of love and loss, Lynley's and others, will draw you in.

I truly looked forward to Elizabeth George's new Novel. I even forgave her for her past mistakes, but this story is sooo boring that I can't keep my eyes open. Having to decipher the names of all of her characters makes a persons head hurt. Anyway, you be the judge, she can be so good, but when shes bad,shes horrid.

Finally, a nice, cozy, suspenseful little read, just what I want to expect from George. A historical tour of a tiny (fictional, I assume) Cornwall town and an introduction to its culture and geography (who would have known Cornwall was such a surfing hub? Not I.) Lots of people with lots of secrets. Lynley and Havers are back, finally. I missed them like I miss irritating but somehow comforting relatives. You're glad to see them come and you're glad to see them go. Who in the world killed Santo Kerne? He was such a fine lad...well, OK, he wasn't, but he didn't seem like the murder victim type. Even Helen returns in a way, in the form of bittersweet memories.

After my disappointment with Elizabeth George's previous two novels, I was a bit concerned when the next book in this ongoing series, Careless in Red was announced. But in having gamely read her series, and knowing that sometimes an author will go off on a tangent, I decided to give this one a chance. If it failed, well, I could always go back to the earlier novels of the series, and leave it at that.

Thomas Lynley, aristocrat and Scotland Yard detective, has retreated to the wilds of the Cornish coast to cope with the loss of his beloved wife and unborn child. He has deliberately cut himself off from everyone he knows, heading off to a future that even he can't comprehend. But the real world is about to intrude and shatter his illusions.

A rock climber has fallen to his death in a remote cove, and unfortunately for Lynley, he's the one who discovers the body. Almost at the same time, the owner of the nearby cottage, Daidre Trahair, returns as he is breaking into her home, and together they report the death. The downside to all of this is that it presents both of them as potential subjects.

For Santo Kerne has been murdered, and as with a good thriller, there's plenty of potential criminals here. Santo was an energetic young surfer, mad for women, and still able to exercise a great deal of charm -- enough to where it's just odd that anyone would kill him.

And the local police chief, DI Bea Hannaford, has plenty of problems of her own. From an ex-husband who is also a police officer, to a teenage son that fill of fire and rebellion, and an assistant who makes mere incompetence look good -- she's not a happy woman. Especially when she finds out who Lynley is.

The victim's family are also not much of a treat either. They've been renovating a dinosaur of an Edwardian hotel, seeking to lure the tourists with promising adventures in the wild splendours of Cornwall, but money is tight, and when Ben Kerne's wife, Dellen, is less than stable, it threatens to bring back a lot of family secrets.

Especially when it seems that Ben Kerne was involved in a very similar death some decades earlier...

I have to say, Elizabeth George is back with this novel. There's plenty of details, an ingeneous use of the colour red, and the fraught relationships here are stretched so tight that they hum with tension. Which is a real plus. Right up to the final pages, the story keeps at a very tight pace, and I found myself reading well into the night, wanting to know just what happens next.

Fans of Barbara Havers may be disappointed that she doesn't appear until partway through the novel, but she is always a treat to watch in action, and she doesn't miss a beat in this one. Especially when she is working with Bea Hannaford, the two of them in a wicked variation of good cop/bad cop.

The exotic names and locals of the Cornish countryside add a very rich flavour to the story. Another plus are the use of sports such as surfing and rock climbing. It's an England that we're familiar with, but not quite.

But naturally, where Ms. George excells is in the internal worlds of her characters. This time, the one that really takes center stage is Thomas Lynley himself. Mentally fragile, adrift, the reader is treated to a very new and fresh look at a character that has appeared in previous novels as someone clever and forthright, seemingly unable to break. It works here, and works well. The relationship that he develops with Daidre is fascinating to watch, and we get to see just how human he is under the cool exterior of a posh swell.

I was really taken by surprise by this one. The story was tightly written and compelling, with the author plotting and drawing the reader into this story of families and communities tied together by secrets and old conflicts. The theme of family ties and the tenuous and rather tricky love between fathers and sons are explored. What I did like was that George is not at all shy about looking at the uglier side of human emotions and motivations, and she uses them to great effect to create this moody thriller.

Happily recommended, and a must-read for any fans of the series. Four and a half stars rounded up to five.

Twice as long as necessary. Several characters were actually completely unnecessary to the entire story. They didn't have a thing to do with it except to live in the same village and add a side story or two! The detail on surfing and cliff climbing was utterly boring, and we were given way to much of it! Who cares about the poster, after we know one suspect misidentified the subject? But, we have to read about two surfers, both dead, what year they died, and where they surfed.

Too many characters and too many back stories. Lynley isn't himself (and not because his wife has been murdered), not above board about things he knows about suspects. Or, one particular suspect. It wasn't believable he kept information from the local detectives.

The solution is summed up in a sort-of confession near the end. Nothing surprising, and doing it this way is just too easy and predictable. A lazy way to let the reader know what happened. By that time I really didn't care one way or the other.

I much prefer Lynley in London, with familiar friends. Since there are many novels written after this one, I hope newer ones I haven't yet read don't revisit Daidre.

This was my first Elizabeth George book. I've loved John Grisham, David Baldacci, and Randy Singer so I was looking forward to reading a British version of a thriller, expecting more of a 2000's Agatha Christie. Ms. George is an extremely talented writer and I loved every part of her story, especially the British-ness of it all, but I was very disturbed and offended by the crude and vulgar she depicted sex. Her main character was a nymphomaniac, engaged in sex with any and everyone, even those half her age including her daughter's boyfriends. Everyone else was also in and out of bed as though simply shaking hands. All this could have been reported more tastefully as done so by Grisham and Baldacci without the graphic and crude descriptions she chose to include. Typically I share books with my mother, father-in-law, niece and sister, and though I am sure they would have thoroughly enjoyed Ms. George's story - minus the vulgarity, this book will go into the recycle bin.

Book 15, in Inspector Lynley series

After a disappointing read in "What came before He Shot Her" which centered around the life of Helen's killer and left out our beloved protagonist , I was pleased to see his return in "Careless in Red".

The story picks up several weeks after Helen's death. Lynley overwhelmed by the death of his wife and his unborn child begins a solo walking tour of the Cornish coast. After several weeks wondering and looking like a homeless bum he stumbles across a dead body who appears to have fallen off a cliff while rock-climbing. With no one else in sight he seeks help from Daidre Trahir, a solitary woman who owns a cottage nearby.

As the story goes on, Lynley and Daidre develop a friendship, one born of mutual pain, tragedies they are both trying to put behind them. The pacing is very leisurely, with oodles of colourful pages describing the upcoming tourist season and the activities of a resort area including the personal side of a large cast of characters.

The story does pick up when we get into the nitty-gritty details of the rock-climber's fate and Lynley's involvement, his questions and theories raise alarm bells. Although Bea Hannaford is in charge of the investigation, she realises Scotland Yard has to be notified, guess who shows up, Barbara Havers, Lynley's long-time colleague. The plotting does eventually burst to life with Lynley digging up old history and conducting interviews. All along Lynley struggles with his personal loss but he eventually realises Scotland Yard is his second love.

If you don't mind Ms. George long winded style of writing you will probably enjoy this one. The plotting has many red herrings to stretch the suspense and keep you captivated from front to back. The cast of characters is very large, each one has their own peculiarity and I found it a mental challenge keeping track of them all. The core of the plot is love and revenge and great detail goes into describing how cunning and manipulative the perpetrator was.

Part of my attraction to this series is the relationship between Lynley and Havers and we finally have them back together and I can't wait to see which direction they will take next.

Sixty-eight year old "Grandie," caretaker of Tammy, 17 years old and pious, a quote typically obstinate female teenager says: "Love's a bitch of a thing," to his drinking pal, 70 year old itinerate surfing guru Jago Reeth, who responds with, "It's a killer, that." As they quaff beers in the local pub. Fifty-eight year old female Detective Inspector Bea Hannorford ponders the three primary motives for murder 1) sex 2) power 3) money i/r/t the murder of 18 year old Santo Kerne, a quote typically obstinate and sex-crazed teen boy, at the same time she bemoans her own love quest for a replacement romantic partner, musing that all men in her age group carry so much baggage and are so pathetic as to drive a woman to drink. And then there's New Scotland Yard's SWF detective sergeant Barbara Havers who has long ago resigned herself to the vibrator, and also the 44 year old mother of the victim who will F almost anyone between doing her forsaken and infatuated (with her) sullen husband; and then the mysterious 31 year old SWF veterinarian and her 45 year old super-sexed client-pal, and cider farmer - who likes boys and men concurrently - just to keep the excitement level up. And there is also the 18 years and pregnant, just-dumped girlfriend of-and-by the victim; and her brother, another typical obstinate sex-crazed teen boy who wants to F the willing and able mother of Santo, who is grieving in her own strange way. Who dunnit? Well, maybe recently retired and grieving (b/c of the murder of his beloved wife) 38 year old New Scotland Yard Detective Superintendent Thomas Lynley can help. Whaddya think?

The author is a highly acclaimed "New York Times Bestselling-" writing in the genre of "psychological suspense." I call it woman's fiction and pretty much just trite and typical. Woman's fiction meaning it stars middle-aged independent woman who are coming to grips with life w/o a husband and struggling to manage wayward teens and economics. And yes, they always become entrepreneurs in the country. But what do I know? I'm a past middle-aged DWM, sometimes referred to as Drinking Writer Man - not ironically wrestling with the same life circumstance as the women, who bore me to the point of drinking alone when not on the "beaver hunt" for unspoiled and/or uncorrupted and not yet bitter, not yet scared, and not yet resentful female company. In other words youngish, intelligent, funny, attractive SWFs, which are rarer than beautiful, female dryads and mermaids, apparently. Maybe those old salts are on to something.

This review is for the audiobook version. This is a difficult book to review and is the first I've read by this author. The story revolves around the seemingly tragic accident of a climber and begins after the murder of Inspector Lynley's wife Helen. We first meet Lynley when he arrives on the scene walking up from London. The story then goes on to add a new character ever few pages until I couldn't keep track of who was who and after a while, 28 hours into the story, I didn't really care anymore. Not only did I barely remember who was actually killed but the plot was so convoluted and confusing that by time the story began revealing the killer I didn't even know who was doing the revealing and what part they were playing within the story.
Also the prose tries too hard. In the often bizarre descriptions of items and people, the words not only jump off the page but also take me completely out of the story and into asking, "What does that even mean?" In the end, the end was disappointing.
An editor should have trimmed about 30% of this story and rid at least half of the cast and it would have been fine.
I'm not giving up on this author. I normally don't judge a single book for the entire series. I'll see what the other stories are before making that decision.

"Careless in Red" opens with the still-grieving Thomas Lynley making his way along the coast of Cornwall on foot. Lynley has been walking so long, in fact, that he could more easily pass for a vagrant or homeless person than he could for the highly respected Detective Superintendent of New Scotland Yard he used to be. Since Lynley wants no part of New Scotland Yard, or anything else regarding his former life, he prefers it that way. But, as luck would have it, he stumbles upon the body of a teenage boy who has apparently fallen from the cliff below which Lynley is walking. When it becomes clear that this is a case of murder, rather than accident, Lynley will find himself one of the early suspects in the investigation.

Detective Inspector Bea Hannaford has a murder to solve but she does not feel that she has been given the proper tools to solve the case. The local policemen assigned to help her on the case do not impress her at all, so she is determined to make the most of having a former star of New Scotland Yard on the case. Hannaford refuses to let Lynley leave the area and convinces him that, since he is there anyway, he may as well give her some help. Hannaford, though, gets more than she bargained by forcibly recruiting Thomas Lynley into the investigation and she soon realizes that he will, indeed, help investigate the murder - but only on his own terms.

Elizabeth George writes big books and this is another whopper, coming in at 623 pages. It is filled with complex side plots and back stories involving a wide array of characters all the way from a grandfather trying to raise his overly religious granddaughter to a Greek expatriate sleeping her way through Cornwall's men (married or not, young or old) at an astonishing pace. Some of the side plots and much of the back story involve the murdered boy, Santo Kerne, a young man who had more than his share of enemies for someone so young. While some might see the multiple characters and stories as a distraction, fans of George will revel in the way she gets so deeply into the lives of such different people and will be impressed with the way she tidies everything up by the book's end.

Longtime fans of the series are, however, likely to be somewhat disappointed that Thomas Lynley is little more than a side character in "Careless in Red" or that Barbara Havers does not even appear in the story until about its mid-point. Havers, though, is Havers and when she does show up, Lynley's character seems to change for the better and the whole pace of the book seems to sharpen.

Note that the unabridged audio book version of "Careless in Red" is some 18 CDs in length and that total listening time is something close to 20 hours in total. This is quite a challenge unless one has an extremely long commute or, as I did, brings the book along on a road trip. Narrator John Lee, who does an excellent job on the recording, is consistent throughout and does a remarkable job on a variety of British accents.

Fans of the series will appreciate this one; newcomers, perhaps not as much. The good news is that Thomas Lynley is recovering from the tragedy he suffered in "With No One as Witness" and that he should be more his old self in the next book in the series.

I was eagerly waiting! Like its predecessors, I found this murder mystery very entertaining. I see from other reviewers that the comments are not as favourable as for other E. George's books but I disagree. Her style is unchanged and the story fully believable. I have always admired the way Ms. George is able to analyse her characters, with rare depth without getting boring.
Inspector Lynely is still devastated for the murder of his wife and son-to-be three months earlier. He has left his job and wonders aimlessly in his native Cornwall, walking around until exhaustion takes over. One day, edging a cliff, he sees the body of a young man. Despite his present detachment from the world, he immediately seeks help. And the plot begins to unfold...
The only thing I would change in this book is the marginal appearance of DS Barbara Havers, who's always been an intergral part of all Lynley's books. Here, she plays but a small part, too small for readers who missed her. Granted that it all adds up to the frame of the story (had she been more present from the beginning, it would not have made much sense for the circumstances surrounding Lynley), still, I would have loved a bigger involvement in the story. That's all. For the rest, a great book which adds up to the sequence of Ms. George's acclaimed books.

Memo to Ms. George from a long-time, faithful reader: Find a good editor, one whose literary judgment you can trust. Make sure it is someone who is willing to tell you the hard truths. Then listen to him or her when they say, as they surely will, that while background research is essential and lends effective depth and texture to your stories, it is NOT necessary to include *every last one* of the details that you uncover about, say, the Cornwall coast or surfing or whatever may be your topic of the day. That sort of padding not only smacks of authorial self-indulgence, but it also diminishes the power of your narrative. Less is more, as a wise poet once said.

Careless in Red seems to have inspired a great deal of contradictory opinions from long-time George fans. Some people think that it's a return to form after the generally disappointing What Came Before He Shot Her. Others find it still too long, grotesque, boring, etc.

Usually, when that kind of split occurs, you'll find me sitting firmly on the fence. But not this time. This time I was firmly in the return-to-form camp. I devoured the book. I was so pleased, since mystery novels have been leaving my generally indifferent lately.

Yes, it is self-indulgently long. I wasn't bothered. George is a fine stylist, and I was sorry when the book was getting close to being over.

What worked well for me was George's exploration of the emotional aftermath of violence. Lynley himself begins the book unsure as to whether he is going somewhere or walking himself to death. Nearly every character in the book is a survivor of one sort or the other, and the plot is as much about exploring that landscape of grief as it is about the actual murder.

I had two minor quibbles-- the character of Daidre annoyed me. That reaction made it difficult for me to care at all about her character arc. The second quibble had to do with the whodunnit part; the conclusion seemed to me far too pat in a variety of ways. Neither of these quibbles spoiled my pleasure.

Recommended.

I agree with almost everything already said in the negative reviews. I too have been a fan of hers from her first. I think Well Schooled in Murder is *****. "Careless..." is in my view an over self-indulgent trek that abounds of arrogance much less indifference to her readers. I tried skipping the chapters where Lynley was not present hoping to find a thread to follow or lead me on, and yet again she interrupts (cross-cutting) with sheer over-writing boredom. Moreover since these chapters are usually in the pov of the ubiquitous narrator how does Lynley "discover" his needed information. Bea Hannaford is a stereotypical insufferable bore. With 500+ pages ahead, staring at me, I chose to look out into the blackness of the night heading for LAX from Boston's Logan.

I've been reading George for years and have devoured every one of her novels but, lately, it seems like they haven't quite been up to snuff with some of her earlier efforts. This novel was a real case in point.

One of the reasons why I feel that George is such a superb author is because of her very literary style. However, there is a point at which this particular style can be carried too far, and George is crossing that line more and more. This novel contains some very long and meandering passages that have absolutely no impact on the plot of the novel. The effect of this is to make it sound like George is rambling and that is not good. She waxes at length about the Cornish coastline and I found myself thinking, "Enough, I get it already!" In fact, there is such a propensity for doing this in the novel that I found that I was losing the plot threads. How can I keep up with all the characters when George abandons them frequently for paragraph after paragraph of superfluous prose?

The variety of characters in the novel is interesting but keeping track of all of them is rather daunting at times. I consider it a strength that George presents the reader with multiple points of view rather than having a narrower focus. To me, it is interesting to get into the heads of the people who are touched by the crime, to find out what impact said crime has on them. The down side of this style is that, naturally, some characters are more interesting than others. I didn't think there were any particularly weak characters in the book, per se, but I was definitely more interested in some of them than I was in others. I also felt that, at times, their stories were being dragged out rather too much so that the merest crumbs were being offered to the reader. This seemed to particularly be the case with the characters of Alan and Kerra.

Lynley is a character that I do enjoy but it seems like he's grown a bit stagnant. It seems almost like Helen's murder was a way to try to give him some new facets or something. I wasn't quite sure I bought the way that he totally fell apart and then seemed to put himself back together rather quickly. At times, Lynley feels more like a cipher than a person and I can't help but wonder if maybe George has reached the limits of what she can do with his character. He is certainly likable but he's not all the compelling.

The character who is compelling is Havers. I found myself growing positively cheerful when she finally made her appearance in the novel. In Havers George has created one of the most unique and diverse characters in contemporary fiction. Havers seems so alive that it wouldn't surprise me if she were to walk off the page, which is more than can be said for Lynley. The appearance of Havers is what really saved the novel for me in the end. Once she was in the picture, the dialog became more sparkling and witty and there was someone to liven up what seemed to be a rather dull cast of characters.

The mystery itself was less than compelling, perhaps because the reader never gets a real sense of the victim. He is more or less dismissed as a playboy and it's hard to take any real interest in him. George would have been better served by making the victim a more multi-dimensional character as it would have given his death greater impact. As it was, the mystery seemed less about the death itself and more about how it inconvenienced other characters and brought out the various and assorted secrets they had been attempting to conceal. The revelation of the perpetrator was meant to shock but the killer's identity wasn't all that well concealed and so by the time it was revealed, I had already figured it out. Perhaps if the book had been more focused it would have been a good reveal and the killer's motives would have been more compelling. As it was, the ending was frankly anticlimactic.

Hopefully George will narrow her focus in her next novel and hopefully there will be a whole lot more of Havers. I've never quite been able to put my finger on why George will concentrate more on characters like Lynley and the St. Jameses than she does on Havers.

It's great to see Inspector Lynley back after the death of his wife, although there are certainly better novels in this excellent series by Elizabeth George. As far as Careless in Red goes, its chief attributes are deep and interesting characters and a tangible feeling of the power of place, in this instance the Cornwall coast.

The weak point here is plotting, which makes this novel less than a page turner yet certainly one to finish, despite its 700+ pages. I don't want to be a spoiler, so I will just say that the story drags somewhat, although it is hard to identify the character 'who done it' until well near the book's end, which I always view as a plus. And the incidental details about tin mining, the itinerant people called 'travelers,' and the sport of surfing add color and interest. (Who knew that England actually had a tourist business built around surfing?)

George's descriptions of Cornwall have convinced me that a trip there must go on my 'bucket list.' The countryside sounds starkly beautiful and the style of life still easy enough to offer genuine relaxation while on a holiday.

Detective Superintendent Thomas Lynley is semi-retired and wandering the coast of Cornwall, trying to come to grips with the death of his wife, Helen, when he stumbles upon the body of a rock climber and becomes embroiled in a local investigation of the young man's death. It's a smallish town, populated with suspects and motives, and a small but determined police squad led by a strong and competent woman, who at first is suspicious of Lynley when she doesn't know who he is, but who quickly presses him into unofficial service to help her with the case. Lynley is drawn to a local woman with secrets of her own, and this tentative friendship does much to bring him back to the land of the living. Our dear Barbara Havers does not make an appearance until 300 pages have gone by, but it is delightful to see the two Scotland Yard partners feeling their way back to a connection again. Naturally, the author is skilled at weaving the tidbits of townspeople's lives into the developing investigation, and naturally, Lynley's hunches pay off with the big reveal of murderer and motive. There may be a tad too many characters, however, and the almost romantic attachment of Lynley to Daidre (the local mystery woman) actually seemed unpleasant to me.