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In the past reviews
dedicated to mystery books, I've kept complaining about how
difficult it was to find something that compares to an Elizabeth
George's mystery, so I thought it was high time I wrote a review
about the real thing and demonstrated the great qualities of the
writer, in order to convince the readers of my reviews...
I started reading the Inspector Lynley/Sergeant
Havers series more that three years ago and have read the first six
in a row. No need to tell how much I enjoyed myself in the process,
otherwise I would have given up after the first, or, at best, the
second... I think I bought the first,
A Great Deliverance, to
see what it was like since I'd been recommended the series. After
completing it, I purchased the six that followed. Since there is such a thing as too
much, even of a good author, I showed signs of weariness somewhere in
the first fifty pages of Playing for the Ashes. Then I read
other books, that in turn made me think of more books to read, and
came to a point where I knew I would have to reread Playing for the
Ashes from the beginning. Since I hate having to start a book over
after a couple of months (I keep thinking: yes I've read that, I
remember, all the while being incapable to anticipate), I ended up
waiting three years. At that point, I hesitated starting the whole
series all over again, in order to reacquaint myself with
distinguished Thomas Lynley and down-to-earth Barbara Havers, and
also, because it somehow disturbs my sense of order and aesthetic
for this web site to have a series reviewed only from the seventh
book...
However, for two reasons I decided against: the first being the
obvious "so many books, not that much time to read" statement and,
closely connected to it, my reluctance to reread a mystery, because,
no doubt, the murderer, or the mobile, or the unexpected twist, will
inevitably come back to my memory before the narration reveals it:
gee, do I hate that... However, I'll try to catch up somehow on the
previous books. For A Great Deliverance, it will be
easy: watching its BBC production will probably refresh my memory so
that I'll be able to write a mini-review (not like this one which
threatens to beat the one on
Stephen King's
Everything Eventual in length ...)
Back to Playing
for the Ashes, and
this is where those who are not interested in my ramblings may join
the rest of us:
Busy week-end for the odd but efficient
team composed of Thomas Lynley, the handsome, aristocratic,
distinguished and rich Detective Inspector that readers have learned to
know in the previous mysteries and for his antithesis: plain,
working-class and outspoken Sergeant Barbara Havers. Thomas Lynley is getting
nervous as he is about to pop the question to Helen Clyde; his
best friend, who has become, in the past months, much more than
this... Meanwhile, Barbara is trying to overcome the guilt of sending her
mother, who suffers from Alzheimer's, to a home for the elderly. She
intends to visit her during the week-end in order to make up for past weeks
absence. She is also getting used to
living alone in her small new cottage... The only person she has spoken to so far is the Pakistani
grocer.
But whatever plans the two police officers had
made will have to be postponed. In a Kent cottage, the asphyxiated
body of Kenneth Fleming, a famous batsman, has been found. Everything
indicates a murder: the arsonist has set a device composed of a
cigarette and matches but the fire failed to catch completely. Plenty of evidence for a murder and also a plethora of suspects: Gabriella
Pattern; Kenneth's lover, who has mysteriously disappeared,
Jean Cooper; Kenneth's wife and childhood sweetheart, who doesn't seem to accept
that Ken left her and their children, Jimmy; the eldest of the
children, who was supposed to be vacationing in Greece with his
father at the time of the murder, and other people who gravitate
around Kenneth, including those who have an interest in the
approaching
national selections for England's cricket team.
Kenneth, who, as a youth, was a prodigy child, a clever boy
gifted for school and sports, loved by everybody who chanced to meet
him, has however met an untimely death at someone else's hands. If
everybody seemed to have motive and/or opportunity, who killed him?
And who is Olivia, whose narration parallels the main thread and
most of all, what is her connection to the murder?
All these questions of course will be answered
by the end of the book. George wrote Playing for the Ashes
following some guidelines such as the thematic of the
ashes, also happening to be the name of a cricket distinction (One
has to admire the appropriateness of George's titles), and the
largest thematic of love: passionate love, filial love, motherly
love, unrequited love: love in all its forms is at the core of this
mystery.
During this journey through a very delicate
investigation the personal life of our favourite police officers
will take new turns: sentimental complications for Lynley and an
unexpected friendship for Havers...
Once again, as with her previous novels,
George has concocted a masterpiece. It is not about the originality
of the plot, or even the surprise brought by the revelation of the
culprit but rather it is about a slow and riveting unravelling (681 pages in my
paperback copy) of dark
secrets, indestructible ties, insurmountable guilt
and ironic fates.
George's novels are about ordinary people who lead
ordinary lives in which a series of unfortunate events ultimately leads to
murder. The setting (England) gives this atmosphere that suits the
genre so well. What makes George's prose so interesting is first of
all that she can write, unlike many mystery writers who can't, because publishers often mistake the genre for a minor one
and tend to publish whoever provides a nasty serial-killer and
unlikely but numerous twists-and-turns. George, unlike them, has a
very fine style from which the mystery world benefits greatly
and also, she has a gift for observing and reproducing human nature
and its manifold manifestations, its flaws and contradictions.
She renews herself with each book, mastering the conventions of the
genre, which allows her to play with them or even break them. She does not have, like some writers
(for instance Mary Higgins Clark, whom, readers may have noticed, I like to
pick on!) a predetermined plot where one just has to change some
names and places from one book to the other (ok! I exaggerate...
slightly!). Elizabeth George is a writer who seems to create from
scratch every time: she reinvents the detective story with each new
book. I bet I won't be waiting three more years to read In the
Presence of the Enemy...
Rating:
© Discussing Books,09/25/2002 |
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