Well-Schooled in Murder

Rating: 3.75* of five

The Book Report: Inspector Thomas Lynley is called to a snobby uppercrust English school by his Old Etonian pal, now a schoolmaster in the place, to investigate the disappearance of scholarship boy Matthew Whately. All too soon comes the moment when the disappearance becomes a murder investigation thanks to the discovery of little Mattie's body in the churchyard containing Thomas Gray's tomb, by none other than Lynley's formerly beloved Deborah who is now wife to Lynley's crippled pal Simon Allcourt-St. James. Lynley and Havers spend a great deal of time chasing their own tails, interviewing people they don't suspect of the crime, and mucking about in the lives of the Great and the Good until they look like the show more Gross and the Godawful. Much awfulness is revealed in Lynley's life, the lives of the masters and staff of the school, and the parents of the various boys. Worst of all is the vile, vile motive for the murder of the poor child: When it was revealed, I had to put the book down and cry.

In the end, of course, the proper person is brought to justice. But the wrack and ruin of all the lives that touch this murer investigation is the truly chilling part of this story. Everyone, literally everyone, in the purview of the investigation is changed by it, not always for the better. No matter how awful the fate of that first murder victim, at least he will never have to live out the rest of his life broken, exposed, pitilessly scrutinized by uncaring and unsympathetic strangers.

Odd to envy a murdered person; I suspect several of these characters end up doing so.

My Review: Time for a rant: Pedophilia is very, very awful. My mother was one, so I know firsthand. And let me tell you something...the *vast* majority of pedophiles are heterosexual men. The idea that gay guys are pedophilic is a grave misconception. A vanishingly small percentage of the men who end up in law enforcement's tender ministrations for child sex crimes are NOT straight married men. So when George uses homosexual pedophilia in her plot, it grates like a woodrasp on my already frayed nerves. /rant

Okay. Well, a lot happens in this book, and not a single bit of it is unmitigatedly good. Surprise, right? George is so well known for her sunny, cheery, cozy books! But this is unusually grim. Havers and Lynley suffer some nasty personal blows. They come face-to-face with unsettling truths about themselves, less so about each other, but absolutely every single twist and turn in this plot is believeable because George makes sure it's grounded in what the characters think and feel. It's a very, very well-crafted book. It's unsettling, as a murder mystery should be if it pretends to accuracy. It's hard at times to read, but in the end, the reader emerges with a profound belief that nothing on this EARTH could make committing a crime worth the risk...therefore it promotes the health of the commonweal. Long may Lynley and Havers investigate! show less

Dark secrets, boarding school bullies, and a slow burn murder mystery. This is a densely plotted police procedural that investigates the schoolyard honor code of "withhold(ing) the truth out of loyalty to one’s mates", along with the murder itself. There are red herrings all over the place and the main suspects do so much deflecting it starts to seem as if every single student and faculty member on the school grounds might be the guilty party. This can be read as a standalone but the developments in the personal lives of the main characters add so much fullness to the story I have to say don’t - start at the beginning of the series. I’d be picking the next book up right now if I knew how to keep it from hijacking all of my free show more time the way this one did. show less

Might have been a 4-star Inspector Lynley novel but alas and as usual, too many things bothered me.

1. The Deborah/St James melodrama. Come on.
2. The words I had to look up, not because I minded looking them up, but because it's starting to feel gratuitous.
3. The adherence to the concept of 'honor among mates' at any cost.
4. Particularly when a law enforcement agent adheres to that concept despite said adherence potentially putting a number of children at risk.
5. The way we are expected to accept that physical and sexual assault can be categorized as mere "bullying."
6. The way Lynley continues to leap to incorrect conclusions, and now somehow has got Havers doing it too.

I understand the next in the series is one big flashback. Moving on show more with reservations - nothing else is available at the library yet anyway. show less

Another chance for Havers to express her disdain for the way class distinctions and loyalties to your mates are allowed to cloud judgment and encourage more ill-advised behavior. This time a young student at a private school is missing, soon found dead and apparently tortured. Surely someone knows something, but the adults have their own secrets or reputations to protect, and the students all know that you don't rat on a mate. George spends a lot of time establishing characters and motives and doubts about who did or knew what. It makes for an interesting read watching the story develop and seeing it all come together in the end.

We also see some development of the regular characters, as Saint James and his wife Deborah struggle through show more a rough patch in their marriage, and Thomas Lynley pines for Helen, away on a greek escape. And Barbara Havers struggles to keep her home life going. show less

At the behest of an old Eton classmate, Lynley investigates the murder of a young student at a private school called Bredgar Chambers. In the course of the investigation, Lynley and Havers uncover a whole slew of seedy secrets and unsavory characters at the school.

The primary theme of the novel is class distinction and hierarchy, and how that plays out in the context of the school. Economic class is a factor, as well as class seniority within the various grades at Bredgar. Subthemes have to do with the desire for children, the choices parents make, and how those choices effect their offspring. One woman chooses to have an abortion--the result is she is unable to have further children. One woman chooses to have her baby, despite her show more youth and the opposition of her family, and the child is born with serious birth defects.

As usual, the tension between the characters of the aristocratic Inspector Lynley and working class Sergeant Havers adds to the drama of the central mystery. The trope of the upper-class detective and lower-class assistant(s) has been previously explored by classic authors such as Dorothy Sayers (Lord Peter Wimsey, who I detest), Margaret Allingham (Albert Campion, who is hit or miss), and Ngaio Marsh (Inspector Roderick Alain, who I quite like), but I think Elizabeth George does it best. Lynley's privileged position is as much of a hindrance as a help, and Barbara Havers's shoulder chip and struggles to take care of her aging parents make them both very relatable. My quibble is that Havers doesn't have a very big role in this case, and in general I prefer her to Lynley.

Throughout the novel, George's evocative writing style enriches and illuminates the narrative. The pacing does get a little tedious at times, especially with the subplot featuring Deborah and Simon St. James. I thought that whole part could have been eliminated. Also, there are a few too many twists in the plot for my taste. But even with these criticisms, I still very much enjoyed Well Schooled in Murder. show less

Vizi e virtù dei college inglesi, nobiltà e popolo, popolarità e malattia. Tutto questo e altro in un romanzo molto ben scritto, con una certa tensione e suspance. Ogni volta che credi di aver scoperto il colpevole la George ti fa' locchiolino e ti fa cambiare strada.

In terms of pure mystery story this is top-notch and as I've found up to date with Elizabeth George, well-crafted and a pleasure to read. The resolution wasn't Christie gasp-worthy, but not only did this keep me guessing to the end, the solution when it came clicked like a key in the lock. In that regard, I'd say this novel is stronger than the first two Lynley mysteries, even if not as moving as the first.

I also enjoyed a glimpse into the workings of an English upper-crust school along the lines of Eton, Harrow--or Hogwarts and how the old unwritten code played into the mystery of a young murdered boy--how it even ties into Lynley's own school ties since a schoolmaster involved was a schoolmate of the detective. I also continued to show more enjoy Havers, and how the two play off each other--the privileged golden boy aristocrat and the unglamorous working class Havers.

If there's anything I didn't care for, it's how the St James fit into the book. In the first book, it was a stretch how the couple just happened to be honeymooning near where the detectives were investigating. In the second book, I had to swallow that Lynley's love Helen just happened to be visiting in a remote Scottish manor where Lynley has been brought into investigate. In this novel, Deborah St James just happens to stumble upon the boy's body. There's also a soap opera-like plot regarding the St James that has nothing to do with the mystery and I could have done without.

Mind you, I do like that the detectives in the series have lives, and that those lives and biases impinge on their investigations. Lynley isn't some Poirot or Marple who just drops into a case and brilliantly solves it without being affected and staying the same through a dozen mysteries. I do like that--but the St James/Helen subplots feel contrived to me in the way the main mystery plot--or even Havers own circumstances do not.

That said, although I wouldn't say this measures up to the top classic mystery stories of a Christie or Tey or Sayers, stacked against the current crop of contemporary mysteries in the mystery section of the store, this series continues to be among the best. show less