A play writer has been murdered in Scotland. The folks at the guest house where the murder took place are all people of note: either of noble birth or famous in the positions they have in life. Lynley is sent out to solve the crime because he is 'one of them'.Personally, I would have preferred starting with the first book, but Steve said that one did not need to read them in order, and he was right. I do not know if the first book in the series answered some of the questions I had from reading this book; questions about his past with Simon St. James, his past with Helen... I am intrigued and therefore have reason to pick up other books in the series. But let me get on talking about this one.
Plot wise, this was OK. I must say that I am more accustomed to detectives being a little less flawed in their thinking, and this book has given me a lot to think about regarding my expectations. In the real world, I would be fairly surprised to have the police solve all the crimes that come their way, so why am I feeling a bit let down about parts of this book? I will try another Lynley before I make up my mind, and also review my own thoughts on this phenomenon - a not-so-perfect detective. Maybe it was just this book. Maybe he will be flawed in others too. One way or another, I think I respected this decision. If nothing else, Lynley seems human.
On to my favourite character. Unusually for me, as I generally find myself preferring the main protagonist, I quite enjoyed Barbara Havers. Although she does appear to have a bit of a chip on her shoulder, she seems a realistic character with a realistic home life. In fact, after hearing about Lynley and his noble upbringing, I found her less than perfect home life far more realistic. While I am far better off than she is (for now), I could appreciate what she had to deal with more than I could understand what it would be like coming home to a butler. There were many trait that I appreciated and respected with regards to her character too.
One thing I had to appreciate was George's writing style. She had some quaint descriptions. I also appreciated how she could bring a character to life in just a few sentences, just by mentioning a few very human and relatable traits - at least with the the 'extras'. I found myself grinning with pleasure over her word choice in the first chapter, and knew I was in for an enjoyable ride.
I gave this a 3 star rating on Goodreads and a 3.5 on my own. In other words, I enjoyed it, but wasn't blown away. Maybe this is my preference for more science-based crime novels or maybe it was just not a blow-me-away book. It wasn't a bad read though, and for giving me a time out from heavy thoughts and real life, it did its job perfectly. I think this would be a good book for lovers of crime novels - especially of crime novels that come from an older age than the one we live in.
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