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Ron Miller's DARK CORRIDORS VOL. 9, No. 24 |
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Troubled Insp. Lynley
stumbles upon murder
of TheColumnists.com
In the weeks following the death of his wife, Helen, Detective Superintendent Thomas Lynley of New Scotland Yard disappears from his usual haunts and begins a lonely journey on foot along the stormy coast of England. Living like a homeless derelict, the last thing he needs to step into while struggling to regain his sanity is a murder case.
But that's exactly what happens in Elizabeth George's "Careless in Red" (Harper, $27.95), the fifteenth novel she has written about or involving Lynley. the blueblood sleuth who has become one of the greatest of all British detectives, even though he's the creation of an American author.
"Careless in Red" is a big (623 pages) and enthralling novel, rich in the colorful amibence George always brings to her novels. It strikes me as one of her very best--and one that brings us a Lynley in the process of rediscovering his true calling in the wake of his wife's thoughtless murder.
When we first meet Lynley, he has been totally out of touch with his family and his employers. In his own mind, he presumes he's finished with detective work and has no zeal for the thought of ever returning to it.
But circumstances intrude and force him back into the heart of an investigation even though he no longer has any real charge as an official investigator. While hiking along the rugged coast of Cornwall, he spots a man lying on the rocks below a sheer cliffside. Climbing precariously down to reach the man before he's swept out to sea, he discovers he's dead, apparently the victim of a fall from the cliff.
With nobody else around for miles and no cellphone with him, Lynley locates a remote cottage near the cliff and, failing to find anyone home, breaks in, hoping to use the phone to call for help. But there is no phone--and he's soon surprised in the house by its owner, a young female veterinarian who has come there for a weekend of isolation by the sea.
Because he found the body, Lynley needs to hang around and be interviewed by the local police. And when it's discovered the man's climbing ropes may have been tampered with, Lynley suddenly finds himself among the suspects in a murder. Without any identification on him, he's easily mistaken for a vagrant, even though he talks like an educated man.
"Careless in Red" quickly becomes the story of Lynley's return to reality, albeit reluctantly, as well as the intricately-woven story of all the other people who were touched by the life of the dead man, a womanizer who had made more than his share of enemies in the surrounding territory.
Elizabeth George has developed into a master of the sort of mystery where you find yourself sinking ever-deeper into the quicksand of lies, betrayals, sinister motives and, especially in this one, deep family secrets. The characters she drags across our trail are endlessly fascinating and George is extremely skilled at keeping us guessing all along the way.
If you're worried about having a Lynley without his commoner sidekick, Sgt. Barbara Havers, on hand, let me reassure you that Barbara turns up for the final 300 pages and her reactions when finally coming face to face with what's left of her former boss are well worth the wait.
Much of the action in this book concerns something I'll admit I never knew existed in chilly England--ocean surfing. Several of the key characters are local people whose work involves catering to the surfing crowd--a hotelier who's developing a resort to welcome them, a surfboard craftsman who designs and builds their gear and a number of the surfers themselves. England is a place where I assumed even Gidget would have to wear a wet suit and maybe a fur coat over her bikini. I'm happy to report that isn't so, according to "Careless in Red."
Another very striking feature of this novel is the primary female bete noir, a sexually predatory woman whose sexual needs are so demanding that she becomes the glue that binds so many of the suspects together. It's a chilling portrait of a kind of female who seems strangely out of place in an environment where taking your clothes off always seems a bit risky.
If you're already an Elizabeth George fan, you won't need urging to run out and grab this new one. If you're just starting in on her work, this is a good one because of its richness and complexity. It shows George at her best and really demonstrates why she has become one of America's most popular mystery writers, even though she writes almost exclusively about crimes in England.
©2008 by Ron Miller. The illustration is courtesy of Harper. This column first posted June 16, 2008.
Ron
Miller is a former nationally syndicated television columnist
and the author of "Mystery! A Celebration," the official
companion book to PBS' "Mystery!" series. He currently
writes about television mysteries for MYSTERY SCENE magazine.
You can comment on this column online. Please address your message to either "The Editors" or Ron Miller . To send an email, click here and don't forget to mention Ron's name: talkback@thecolumnists.com
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