The Book Depository Believing the Lie by Elizabeth George
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Price: £9.99
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Description: Believing the Lie : Paperback : HODDER & STOUGHTON : 9781444730142 : : 01 Dec 2020 : Elizabeth George's masterly novel sees Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley back centre stage in an intricate crime drama. The Book Depository Believing the Lie by Elizabeth George - shop the best deal online on thebookbug.co.uk
Category: Books
Merchant: The Book Depository
Product ID: 9781444730142
MPN: 9781444730142
GTIN: 9781444730142
Author: Shell
Rating: 5
Review: I have just finished this book and I really enjoyed it. I could not put it down and when it comes down to it, that is what is important. Like some of the other reviewers I was extremely irritated by Deb and her meddling but it did not spoil the book. I was taken aback by the last little bit and I do hope that we will see more of Havers in the next one, and hopefully less of deb who came across as a spoilt and rather silly woman. I've never been that keen on the St James couple anyway. I think I have read all of this series so far and I thought this one was really good. Yes, it probably does not go with police procedure to have some of the things that happened in this book actually happen, but it would be boring and depressing if a writer had to stick with the truth in fiction. After all the whole thing is pretty unbelievable anyway - the toff detective , the faithful servants etc. In some ways "what came before he shot her" was the most realistic book and I enjoyed that too, but it is not what keeps me coming back to this series. The length is spot on. I read a lot and a great feature of these novels is that there is plenty to get stuck into.
Author: LizzieN4
Rating: 1
Review: Elizabeth George's novels are usually worth reading for the plots alone -- even if her `English' dialogue reads like the literary equivalent of listening to Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins, and the Britain her characters inhabit has more in common with the world of Downton Abbey than the country I live in. Please, Elizabeth -- no one in Britain (with the possible exception of Prince Charles) uses the personal pronoun `one', except in irony! However, from the start I was struck by the apparent lack of research behind this one, which also seems to feature time travel. We start in `October' -- no indication of the year, but one when newspapers were still based on Fleet Street (most left in the 1980s), had not yet gone online, and had editors who avoided profanity (was that ever?); Blackfriars tube station was open (it has been closed since 2009, and will reopen later in 2012); people `slapped down credit cards' to pay for train tickets (so before automated ticket machines and chip-and-PIN) ; and a reporter for a national tabloid is not permanently welded to his smartphone, or even appears to possess one. Also an era before there were regular trains from Euston to Oxenholme. To be fair, more than a third of the way through the book, it is pointed out that Fleet Street is no longer the home of newspapers, but that The Source is a rare exception; this seems to have been added as an afterthought, and does not ring true. We then skip to Cumbria, to a year when gay civil partnerships are a possibility -- so it must be later than 2004, which leaves us with a five-year window before the closure of Blackfriars station. Chip-and-PIN was rolled out nationwide from 2004, and would certainly have been in operation at Euston early in this roll-out... though I suppose he could have had an oldish credit card... Hmm... This might not matter, but if you're going to give this much detail, you might as well get it right. These quibbles apart... unfortunately, the plot, such as it is, does not save this novel. In fact, Ms George seems to be desperately padding out a very flimsy idea with superfluous dialogue and peripheral descriptions, and it was hard work to read through to the end. It is simply incredible that a senior Metropolitan police officer would be given semi-official sanction (and, presumably, continue to receive his salary) to go on an amateur sleuthing exercise in the country with his chums, just because a dysfunctional rich family pulls some strings; and unlikely that the unwarranted, intrusive and ultimately destructive behaviour of some of the characters `on Lynley's side' would be tolerated. A couple of subplots are included -- I can't say `woven in' because it's not true -- and equally lack credibility. The final scene -- nothing to do with the main `plot' -- is pure, but presumably unintentional, farce (and effectively destroys any remaining credibility of my hitherto favourite character). A huge disappointment for Elizabeth George fans. I agree with other reviewers that this has all the signs of a book produced to fulfil a contract, rather than through any creative idea. I don't think I will be reading any more of her novels.
