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THE PUNISHMENT SHE DESERVES
by Elizabeth George
Viking, March 2018
704 pages
$28.00
ISBN: 0525954341


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Fans of the Thomas Lynley series of mysteries by Elizabeth George are in luck: this is a fabulous read that I did not want to end. The characters are developed with care, the plotting is meticulous, the setting is lovingly depicted. Even the book title, THE PUNISHMENT SHE DESERVES, was chosen with care and creativity; one cannot help thinking about how applicable it is to many of the plots and subplots within.

For those of you who may be unfamiliar with the series, the major characters from Scotland Yard are Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley, who also happens to be a British lord, Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers, Lynley's junior who is working-class and lacks Lynley's polish, and their boss, Detective Chief Inspector Isabelle Ardery, whose losing battle with alcohol has cost her her marriage.

The plot revolves around unraveling the death of a clergyman while in the custody of a police station in Ludlow, a small, bucolic college town in Shropshire. Yet there is much more than a simple murder afoot. There are secrets to uncover, binge drinking among the college students, promiscuity, disintegrating families, obsessive mothers, and sexual abuse.

The unlikely duo of Ardery and Havers is sent to Ludlow to investigate the death of a clergyman, Ian Druitt while in custody at a small police station. The official ruling is suicide, yet his wealthy father, does not accept that ruling, and gets his Member of Parliament to go to Scotland Yard to advocate for a further investigation. Ardery has long been looking for an opportunity to get rid of Havers, whom she views as a loose cannon who is incapable of following orders, and recognizes this might be just that opportunity. Havers uncovers some key information in the investigation that would upset the official answers; Ardery orders her to leave that information out of her report. Unhappy, Havers follows her orders. Lynley, however, sends the information Barbara has discovered to the father of the dead man, which results in Lynley and Havers being set back to Shropshire to investigate further.

Other plotlines that weave in and out of the work include the mysterious and abrupt departure from college by a young and serious student who comes from a troubled mixed Indian-British family, the issues of an under-resourced local police force, a policewoman who is an obsessively over-protective mother of a boisterous college student, anonymous reports of sexual abuse at a children's program, sexual mores and relationship woes among college students, On a lighter – and somewhat implausible - note, one of the Scotland Yard secretaries has befriended Havers and has signed her up for tap dancing classes, with a recital coming up.

With minor exceptions, the characters are drawn as full human beings, with strengths and flaws, with the relationships among them deliciously rich. As someone who is a fan of the series, I did wonder if THE PUNISHMENT SHE DESERVES would work as a stand-alone novel; however, the writing is so good and the plotting so satisfying I can only think a reader who stumbles upon this work would just rush out to buy another Inspector Lynley. Not all books in the series are as successfully put together as this one; I found THE PUNISHMENT SHE DESERVES to be one of the best of the bunch.

§ Phyllis Onstad has been a writer, editor, civil servant, teacher and voracious reader. She currently lives in the California wine country.

Reviewed by Phyllis Onstad, March 2018

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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