Paul's comments...
I couldn't get through this book. I gave up after a 150 pages! It is the portrayal of a dysfunctional family and of the ways its members can go tragically astray but the plot is disconnected and overly complicated. Too much detail, and bleak and hopeless tone. It's too bad because I've enjoyed her Inspector Thomas Lynley books. But he is all but missing from this one. The majority of critics cite this psychological crime novel as a deeply disturbing and unrelenting, yet illuminating, . There are, of course, no surprises about how the novel ends: Elizabeth George has already told that story in With No One As Witness.
Book Description
Bestseller George (With No One as Witness) departs from the usual investigative nuts and bolts of her Thomas Lynley and Barbara Havers mystery thrillers with this searing examination of the lives of one horribly dysfunctional family and their immigrant London milieu. Switching uncomfortably at times from dialogue in a rough patois to exposition in a language both formal and sociological, George delivers a stinging indictment of a society unable to respond effectively to the needs of its poorer citizens. Kendra Osborne, a 40-year-old woman with modest ambitions and plans to achieve them, has no idea how to cope when her mother "dumps" her sister's three children on her doorstep and heads for Jamaica. Fifteen-year-old Ness, 11-year-old Joel and seven-year-old Toby each have a wealth of problems exacerbated by their mixed-race heritage. It's no accident that George refers to Dickens on the first page of this earnest but perhaps overly didactic novel, which focuses on the burdens borne by Joel as he's swept by forces he can neither understand nor control into a fatal encounter.
2 comments:
I have to say, I loved this book (but I love ALL her books, so that's no news), but I understand why people don't. It's true that it is a bit too pesimistic at times, but it also gives you a chance to look at the lives of those who commit a crime and makes you think "hm, maybe it's true that they didn't have a chance, after all".
All in all, I'm dying to read her next Linley novel. I love all her characters in those books, especially Barbara Havers. I don't know how many times I've read them...
Nice reading you.
I hated this book (it was given to me, I firstly didn't even want it). Because I hated the previous one too. Not that it is not well written... I'm a fan of the series, have read them all and... really loved the character of Helen Clyde. I can't forgive George for having "killed" Helen. "With No One As Witness" was badly constructed. Never Scottland Yard would have neglicted investigating Collossus' employees during such a long time. Particularly after having found him being the one who bought the oil, they would even have found the brand of Kilfoyl's favourite underware and the rest... In a normal world at least. George also shouldn't forget that all this does not happen in 2007... On the one hand Havers has her first mobile phone... on the other, nearly the entire city seems to have one. I made a rough calculation based upon "Payment in blood", and found out this intrigue takes place around 1993. I could read this last book until the end because of my wish to see Havers and Nkata discover something new about this murder on command... about Linley's ennemy, I suspect Hillier to be implicated.
George has become very ... commercial. Writing stories without a clue forces people to buy the next book.... I suppose the next title might be "Wat happened after he shot her"... something like 8 years later, when Joel can be free again... Linley a bit less destroyed and Havers married with her neighbour?
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