A Suitable Vengeance

Have you ever read a murder mystery where you wanted almost every character to die, not just the victim(s), so that they would stop irritating you? I never thought that such an uninteresting mystery could be written by Elizabeth George, but I am sad to say that this book SUCKS.

The plot could not hold my interest. People I did not care about dropped off left and right, the mystery was "solved" with circumstantial evidence and conjecture, and there was very little detection involved. Reading about people taking drugs, I learned, is almost as tedious as watching people take drugs; why do drug users think they are so interesting and edgy? This book also proves that rich people can lead lives as boring as people with modest (or no) show more income.

But the worst part is the Melrose Place type romantic entanglements of the protagonists. Once again I had to suffer through the angst of star crossed lovers Simon and Deborah: "I DUV you, but...I have baggage!" "Omigawd, I DUV you, too, but I have baggage as well!" Continue ad nauseum--and 360 pages of nausea is painful indeed.

The sole light of this book was Lady Helen Clyde, who somehow managed to cut through all the bullshit cheerfully and gracefully. I wish I could be both so lighthearted while so caring. That bright point aside, this book remains an optional one in the otherwise fantastic Lynley series. show less

A SuitableVengeance (1991) (Insp. Lynley #4) by Elizabether George. You don’t know what you’ve got till its gone. That phrase says a lot about what is happening, or actually,not happening, in the world of Covid-19. But it also applies to this novel. Sgt. Havers is all but missing, making only a brief cameo at the end.
Here we have a prequel to the first novels in Ms. George’s Thomas Lynley/Barbara Havers detective tales. The group of friends that you have met in the other books are gathered in Cornwall at Lynley’s estate Howenstow. They come together in celebration of Lynley’s engagement to photographer Deborah Cotter. But it is a hell of a weekend, and not in the boisterous, “man was that a blast!” sort of way. We know show more the engagement is doomed, but not the friendship, and this is what causes the relationships that ensue.
There is a lot of angst here, love gone wrong, reasons for Lynley’s poor attitude towards his mother, why Deborah hates Simon St. James, and Lynley’s younger brother’s addiction to cocaine. There are other people hanging around, including Mr. Body, who goes by the name of Mick Cambrey. He conveniently is sexually mutilated and killed about a fourth of the way into the book.
Not your conventional entry to the series, but this book serves as a road map to the people involved. It is the ongoing nature of their relationships which both drive and give this series its strength. Not a standalone book by any stretch, but a welcome addition to the history of Lynley. show less

My favorite so far, which is weird because I was kind of dreading this prequel to the Inspector Lynley series - right or wrong, I always think a prequel can only be boring. I want to know what happens next. I do not care what happened before.

I'm not even sure what made this one better. It still contained words like "glaucous" and "furcate" and one word (which I have thankfully forgotten) had no dictionary entry at all on Kindle. It also outdid itself in the "Lords and Ladies ignore horrific crimes because they are Lords and Ladies and thus feel they have that option." On the bright side the pacing was good, the mystery was interesting and the angst struck me as less extreme than in previous books.

Had I lost my patience with this one I show more might have ended my engagement with Inspector Lynley immediately. As it stands he has been redeemed somewhat but is still on book probation, so to speak. On to #5. show less

I do like Elizabeth George's style, and her way with a mystery, but this novel epitomizes everything in her Lynley series I find the most irritating. This particular book is set before the first in the series, A Great Deliverance. Which means it's Lynley without Havers. Havers only has a very brief appearance here, more a cameo, late in the book, two appearances less than a page each and a couple of mentions.

That leaves us with Thomas Lynley, Lord Asherton, up to his family manor Howenstow in Cornwall for an "engagement weekend" to introduce his fiance Deborah Cotter to his family; Lady Helen and Simon St James accompany him. The subplots involving Deborah, Simon and Helen in the other books have been my least favorite feature. Too show more often coincidences stretching credibility had been used to involve them in the mystery and their emotional entanglements too much a soap opera. At least in this story, since they are central to the mystery, it seems far less a distraction. And George is at the top of her game here plot-wise. I do like her way with red herrings and feints--she certainly kept me guessing to the end with more than one twist or turn.

But yes, I miss Havers and her working class sensibilities scraping against Lynley's upper class crust. At times here, such as when George has people ignoring a near-rape as an unpleasantness to be smoothed over, or when Lynley bungles in securing a crime scene, I couldn't help but wonder what Havers would have made of that. Havers and Lynley compliment each other, both in professional and in a literary sense, and I do think her being missing bumps this installment down a notch. show less

At first this one appears to be out of sync with the earlier episodes in this series, but it is so well written that the reader is caught up in the mystery (almost a closed door classic) while we learn about Thomas Lynley's romance with Deborah Cotter whom he has brought home to meet his mother.

He ends up spending more time with his "best friend" Lady Helen Clyde and his life-long friend forensic scientist Simon Allcourt-St. James and readers are left wondering who will end up marrying whom. An enticing way to keep us ready for the next in the series.

A Suitable Vengeance is the fourth of the Lynley-Havers series by Elizabeth George, however, it deals with events that happened prior to the very first book of the series, A Great Deliverance. It has plenty of background for Lynley fans and also reveals a great deal of the Lynley family history. Unfortunately DS Havers plays only a cameo role which is a shame because she would have brought a touch of reality to a highly melodramatic tale. Previous books have hinted at some sort of a triangle between Lynley, St. James and Deborah and this book will finally answer them. It's way too long and really overwritten but as a fan of the series I found it interesting to fill in some of the character's background.

In this book, the main action is show more set in Cornwall where Lynley plans to introduce his fiancee, Deborah Cotton. "A Suitable Vengeance" starts out extremely slowly. In fact, the first murder, that of a local newspaperman, doesn't occur until at least a quarter of the way through. If it had been a straight murder story rather than a vehicle to explore the histories of our main characters it might have been more interesting. The murderer ended up being a surprise for me but I was so annoyed at the Harlequin-like, self-pitying relationships between Lynley, St. James and Deborah that by the time I got there I no longer cared.

The descriptions of Cornwall are excellent, providing a convincing sense of place and an atmospheric backdrop. Hopefully, in her next novels George will return to the approach that worked well in the first three novels, where she writes a great mystery that any observant reader can solve and, along the way, deepens the reader's understanding of some very likable characters. I'm still a fan and have already picked up number 5 of the series, For the Sake of Elena. show less

This is more a story of Lynley and his family and relationships than a story of Lynley and Havers. Havers only makes a quite brief appearance in the story and only really as a small part.

Lynley is bringing his bride-to-be to visit the family home and his mother but death makes an appearance and the bodies start to mount. His brother appears to be connected with much of it and Lynley also needs to deal with some of his own family issues at the same time.

I liked the story, the complicated relationships families have is clear but it was also clear that people cared for each other.

I look forward to reading more in this series.