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Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... Jefferson Public Library | M GEORGE | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Silver Falls Library | MYS GEORGE | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
When thirteen-year-old Matthew Whately goes missing from Bredgar Chambers, a prestigious public school in the heart of West Sussex, aristocratic Inspector Thomas Lynley receives a call for help from the lad's housemaster, who also happens to be an old school chum. Thus, the inspector, his partner, Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers, and forensic scientist Simon Allcourt-St. James find themselves once again outside their jurisdiction and deeply involved in the search for a child--and then, tragically, for a child killer. Questioning prefects, teachers, and pupils closest to the dead boy, Lynley and Havers sense that something extraordinarily evil is going on behind Bredgar Chambers's cloistered walls. But as they begin to unlock the secrets of this closed society, the investigation into Matthew's death leads them perilously close to their own emotional wounds--and blinds them to the signs of another murder in the making.... From the Paperback edition.
Author Notes
Elizabeth George was born on February 26, 1949, in Warren, Ohio. She received a bachelor's degree in education from the University of California in Riverside and a master's degree in counseling/psychology from California State University at Fullerton. She taught English in high school for about thirteen years before leaving to become a full-time writer. She is the New York Times and internationally best selling author of twenty British crime novels featuring Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley and his unconventional partner Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers. Her novel, A Great Deliverance, won the Anthony Award, the Agatha Award, and France's Le Grand Prix de Literature Policiere in 1989. Her crime novels have been translated into 30 languages and featured on television by the BBC. She is also the author of a young adult series set on the island where she lives in the state of Washington. Her title's include Edge of Light, The Edge of the Shadows, The Edge of the Water, I, Richard, and The Punishment She Deserves.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (2)
Kirkus Review
After a brilliant debut (A Great Deliverance) and an almost as dazzling second novel (Payment in Blood), George's third mystery seems more modest--more an homage to the plot intricacies of Christie than a psychological twister in the manner of Rendell--but only for the book's first hundred pages; then the author swings into high gear as she un(Gordian) knots the old school tie. When housemaster John Corntel asks fellow Etonian Thomas Lynley, Scotland Yard CID, to find missing Bredgar Chambers' student Mattie Whately, Lynley somewhat offhandedly agrees, then becomes involved in earnest when the child's naked, tortured body is discovered in a cemetery by old friend Deborah St. James. Accompanied by tough-minded, working-class-reared Sgt. Barbara Havers, Lynley's investigation disgruntles the headmaster; antagonizes the school's principal benefactor, Giles Byrne (his son Brian is an unlikable house prefect); reveals housemaster Corntel's pathetic sexual fantasies; and almost comes to a dead halt when it collides with senior prefect Chas Quilter's loyalty to the school code of honor (resulting in his suicide). Finally, however, a tape recording implicates one student in sexual bullying, and another in blackmail that may have led to Mattie's death. Complications arise when the victim, like student suicide Edward Hus 17 years before, is revealed to have been half-Chinese and adopted. By the time Lynley and Havers sort through school politics, hazing rituals, sixth-form rites of passage, and the sexual mishaps of almost everyone--including the tormented Deborah--the solution is almost exquisite relief from the stress of living. Initially sluggish, in the manner dear to the cozy reader's heart, but George finally offers a piercing study of the education of a gentleman and his responsibilities and valor. Lynley, still lovelorn over Helen, seems emotionally opaque here, though Havers, in her family vise, fairly shimmers. Solid, fine-tuned writing--and a handsome companion piece to its two predecessors. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
Thomas Lynley (the earl turned policeman) and Sergeant Havers focus their prodigious talents on uncovering the murderer of a young boy from an exclusive independent school near London. While author George necessarily centers the plot on solving the case, she adroitly plumbs the emotional and psychological depths of fully fleshed characters coping with various forms of personal stress in addition to the murder. As in her previous work ( A Great Deliverance ; Payment in Blood , LJ 7/1/89), George offers refined, feeling prose, an abiding sense of humanity, and a pervasive undercurrent of mystery. A necessary purchase, exceedingly fair and full of grace. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 4/1/90. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.