Waterstones Careless in Red

Author: ELI (Italy)

Rating: 5

Review: 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.

Author: Reader's Digest

Rating: 1

Review: ... about any of the characters including Lynley and Havers. What was it with all the weird names anyway? So many people with their own "mysteries" and all this deceit and adultery in one village. Come on! Allegedly, Ms George has also written a book about book writing - I would be very interested whether she really followed any of the rules about writing at all with this one. To many plots, to many confusing names and a lot of filling material that made this book even more boring. When other authors tend to write less pages in a series of books Ms George does the opposite and I wonder why. That this utterly boring character Helen was killed off was not such a bad move, but letting Lynley walk around like a vagrant in Cornwell only to let him stumble on the corpse of a young boy and get him consequently involved in the police work and then even ask Havers to come there and do a little detective work ... And what was his fascination with this Daidre woman - really a former gypsy with a very creative way of telling her story. And Lynley sees something common in their upbringing? The lord and the gypsy. Hedwig Courths-Mahler would have found that the ideal makings for one of her books. The useless rural coppers and their guv the divorced and frustrated internet dating Bea Hannaford just made the whole book even more unbelievable. Add to that complicated family lives, an old man who can't move on and you have the recipe for a very, very bad book. Overall looking at Ms George's books, all of the female characters started out as weak and forgettable except Havers. With 15 books on there is no development at all with the females and Havers starts to join the usual boring description of all the females. The man start at least interesting but don't grow up and the stories are just a cobble job. Nothing to look forward in my opinion. I got the last of her books as a gift and thought I should read all the ones I did not have until I start with her latest novel, but I regret it already and if the next one is not better, it was the last one I will ever read of Ms Georges novels.