Just One Evil Act: An Inspector Lynley Novel by Elizabeth George
| Just One Evil Act: An Inspector Lynley Novel by Elizabeth George | |
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| Category: Crime | |
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Reviewer: Sue Magee
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| Summary: A good story, but it really is too long to make a good read: a great pity. | |
| Buy? Maybe | Borrow? Maybe |
| Pages: 720/28h27m | Date: April 2014 |
| Publisher: Hodder | |
| ISBN: 978-1444706024 | |
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Hadiyyah Upman disappeared with her mother and it was particularly frustrating for DS Barbara Havers. She was particularly fond of Hadiyyah and she and her father were her friends as well as her neighbours. But five months later Hadiyyah was kidnapped from an open-air market in Lucca in Italy and Havers waded in at her manipulative best. She used the worst of the British tabloids to bring the case to public attention in the hope of being sent out to Italy as the liaison officer, but Scotland Yard had other thoughts and it was her superior officer, DI Thomas Lynley who went to Italy. He faced language difficulties - although he does speak Italian - racial issues and the determination of an Italian magistrates to convict someone (indeed anyone) for the kidnapping.
Now, are you strong? I ask because it's a big book - 720 pages if you're reading the hardback/paperback version or 28 hours 27 minutes if you're listening to the audio download as I did. A long book can be an indulgence but there does come a point when the length becomes more than indulgence and I think Just One Evil Act overstepped that mark and became indulgence on the author's part rather than for the reader. There's no shortage of twists, turns and red herrings and the plot is well constructed but I would have enjoyed it so much more if it had been shorter.
I read Elizabeth George's Inspector Lynley series almost out of habit and despite the fact that they seem to be increasing in length. There's a compulsion to see what Barbara Havers will do next, to follow what's happening to Tommy Lynley and Deborah and Simon St James but I'm afraid it's beginning to seem like my habit of watching Casualty which I watch to see how odd it can get next.
Rather than read Just One Evil Act I listened to an audio download (which I bought myself) narrated by Davina Porter. Davina Porter started off at something of a disadvantage as I'd just listened to Believing the Lie narrated by Tim Bentinck and I thought that he was superb. Davina Porter was reasonable, but I'm afraid that she paled in comparison to Bentinck.
For a long-running series, we have enjoyed have a look at the latest Inspector Rebus.
Elizabeth George's Inspector Lynley Novels in Chronological Order
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