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Inspector Lynley

The series follows detective Thomas Lynley and his partner Barbara Havers as they tackle complex and psychologically challenging crimes. Their different approaches to investigation and personal lives create a tension that is central to their relationship. The books explore themes of class, identity, and morality in Victorian Britain. Each case presents them with not only a professional challenge but also a personal test.

Missing Joseph
For the Sake of Elena
A Suitable Vengeance
Well-schooled in Murder
Payment in Blood
A Great Deliverance

Recommended Reading Order

  1. From acclaimed author George comes this literate, vastly detailed, and intricately characterized piece. Scotland Yard's Thomas Lynley, unexpectedly assigned to a gory stabbing murder, uncovers deeply hidden family secrets and various psychological convolutions among suspects.

    Payment in Blood2
    3.9
  2. A Suitable Vengeance

    • 449 pages
    • 16 hours of reading

    When Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley, Eighth Earl of Asherton, and his fiancee, Deborah Cotter, arrive at Howenstow, Lynley's family home, they find the atmosphere rife with tension.

    A Suitable Vengeance4
    4.0
  3. For the Sake of Elena

    • 388 pages
    • 14 hours of reading

    In hardcover, For the Sake of Elena made an incredible splash with rave reviews and superb sales. Without question, Elizabeth George ranks with the superstars of the literary mystery. This novel featuring Scotland Yard Inspector Lynley takes readers into the rarefied world of Cambridge and reveals a deadly side hidden behind those lofty books.

    For the Sake of Elena5
    3.9
  4. The power of parental love, a power which overrides all other considerations, all other loves and loyalties, but which can end in tragedy._

    Missing Joseph6
    4.0
  5. Playing for the Ashes

    • 688 pages
    • 25 hours of reading

    "The story begins with my father, actually, and the fact that I'm the one who's answerable for his death. It was not my first crime, as you will see, but it is the one my mother couldn't forgive." In her astonishing "New York Times" bestseller, acclaimed author Elizabeth George reveals the even darker truth behind this startling confession. "Playing for the Ashes" is a rich tale of passion, murder and love in which Inspector Thomas Lynley and Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers once again find themselves embroiled in a case where nothing--and no one--is really what it seems. Intense, suspenseful and brilliantly written, "Playing for the Ashes" will make readers "search out the sleuthing pair's first six adventures...a treasure," as "Cosmopolitan" predicted in their review. "From the Paperback edition."

    Playing for the Ashes7
    3.9
  6. Dennis Luxford has made a career out of exposing scandal, and when he is offered another government sleaze story, his hesitation seems inexplicable. But at the heart of the scoop lies the kidnapping of his daughter. Inspector Lynley and Dectective Sergeant Havers are called in.

    In the Presence of the Enemy8
    4.1
  7. Balford-le-Nez is a dying seaside town on the coast of Essex. But when a member of the town's small but growing Asian community is found dead near its beach, the sleepy town ignites. Working without her long-time partner, Detective Inspector Lynley, Sergeant Barbara Havers must probe not only the mind of a murderer and a case very close to her own heart, but also the terrible price people pay for deceiving others . . . and themselves.

    Deception on His Mind9
    4.1
  8. When the body of Nicola Maiden, the daughter of a retired Scotland Yard undercover officer, is found near an unidentified body in the middle of a pre-historic stone circle in Derbyshire, Inspector Lynley is asked to lead the investigation into the deaths. Lynley must get to the bottom of the crime without the assistance of his long-time partner Sergeant Barbara Havers following her demotion as a result of an internal investigation. But Barbara Havers has plans of her own, and they involve the very case that Lynley is working on . . .

    In pursuit of the proper sinner10
    4.1
  9. A Traitor to Memory

    • 1006 pages
    • 36 hours of reading

    Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley risks his career when Eugenie Davies is brutally murdered and discovers that she had been tied to an old murder investigation that could possibly involve his superior, Superintendent Malcolm Webberly, and as Thomas and his partners search for the truth, they must delve into dark secrets and passions of a prominent family to catch a killer. Reprint.

    A Traitor to Memory11
    4.0
  10. A Place of Hiding

    • 632 pages
    • 23 hours of reading

    The sudden death of Guy Brouard after his morning swim shocks the residents of Guernsey. A generous patron and benefactor of the island since his arrival there a decade ago, his demise puts a question mark over many cherished projects. When a young American woman is charged with the murder, her brother seeks help from the only contact he has in the UK - Deborah St James. Deborah is horrified to find that her old friend has been arrested and persuades her husband Simon to accompany her to Guernsey to avert this miscarriage of justice. There they find a tangled web of deceit and betrayal, with its origins in wartime occupation. In solving the crime, they must rely on their long-standing friendship with Inspector Lynley; they must also learn painful lessons about loyalty and trust, and the loving tyranny of family ties.

    A Place of Hiding12
    3.9
  11. When an adolescent boy's mutilated body is found, it doesn't take long for the police to realize that this is the work of a serial killer.

    With No One as Witness13
    4.1
  12. The shocking conclusion of Elizabeth George's previous bestseller, WITH NO ONE AS WITNESS, saw the wife of New Scotland Yard's Thomas Lynley gunned down in the street outside her home. Under arrest for the crime is a twelve-year-old boy, Joel Campbell. What possible motive could he have? What chain of events could have led such a child from the housing estates of North Kensington to the elegant streets of Belgravia with such deadly intent? The answer to these questions is a complex mixture of fate and circumstance. Abandoned (albeit involuntarily) by his parents, Joel and two siblings are dumped on the doorstep of his aunt's house. Kendra, childless and with two marriages behind her, is doing her best to turn her life around; responsibility for three troubled children is not what she had in mind. Drugs, neglect, violence and poverty are commonplace in North Kensington. Joel does his best to look out for his family, but that involves a Faustian pact. And the Devil will have his pay.

    What Came Before He Shot Her14
    4.3
  13. Careless in Red

    • 568 pages
    • 20 hours of reading

    Thomas Lynley returns in the thrillingly satisfying crime drama from bestselling author Elizabeth George.

    Careless in Red15
    3.9
  14. This body of death

    • 736 pages
    • 26 hours of reading

    Krimi. On compassionate leave after the murder of his wife, Thomas Lynley is called back to Scotland Yard when the body of a woman is found stabbed and abandoned in an isolated London cemetery. While Lynley works on the case in London, his former colleagues Barbara Havers and Winston Nkata follow the murder trail south to the New Forest - and to an outcome that is both tragic and shocking

    This body of death16
    4.0
  15. In this novel Inspector Thomas Lynley is mystified when he's sent undercover to investigate the death of Ian Cresswell at the request of the man's uncle, the wealthy and influential Bernard Fairclough. The death has been ruled an accidental drowning, and nothing on the surface indicates otherwise. But when Lynley enlists the help of his friends Simon and Deborah St. James, the trio's digging soon reveals that the Fairclough clan is awash in secrets, lies, and motives. Deborah's investigation of the prime suspect, Bernard's prodigal son Nicholas, a recovering drug addict, leads her to Nicholas' wife, a woman with whom she feels a kinship, a woman as fiercely protective as she is beautiful. Lynley and Simon delve for information from the rest of the family, including the victim's bitter ex-wife and the man he left her for, and Bernard himself. As the investigation escalates, the Fairclough family's veneer cracks, with deception and self-delusion threatening to destroy everyone from the Fairclough patriarch to Tim, the troubled son Ian left behind

    Believing the lie17
    3.8
  16. Supporting a friend who has lost custody of his young daughter, Barbara and her partner, Inspector Thomas Lynley, are further shocked when the girl's mother reports that the child has been kidnapped as part of a plot that risks Barbara's career.

    Just One Evil Act18
    3.7
  17. A Banquet of Consequences

    • 720 pages
    • 26 hours of reading

    Inspector Lynley investigates the London end of an ever more darkly disturbing case, with Barbara Havers and Winston Nkata looking behind the peaceful façade of country life to discover a twisted world of desire and deceit. The suicide of William Goldacre is devastating to those left behind. But what was the cause of his tragedy and how far might the consequences reach? Is there a link between the young man's leap from a Dorset cliff and a horrific poisoning in Cambridge? Following various career-threatening misdemeanours, Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers is desperate to redeem herself. So when a past encounter with bestselling feminist writer Clare Abbott and her pushy personal assistant Caroline Goldacre gives her a connection to the Cambridge murder, Barbara begs DI Thomas Lynley to let her pursue the crime. Full of shocks, intensity and suspense from first page to last, A Banquet of Consequences reveals both Lynley and Havers under pressure, and author Elizabeth George writing at the very height of her exceptional powers.

    A Banquet of Consequences19
    3.9
  18. When a Member of Parliament comes to New Scotland Yard demanding an investigation into a suicide, the Assistant Commissioner sees an opportunity to get rid of Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers, whose career has been hanging by a thread for some time. Barbara is sent to the beautiful town of Ludlow to review the case, under the cold eye of Detective Chief Superintendent Isabelle Ardery, who more than shares the Commissioner's view of her. But Ardery has problems of her own and in her haste to return to London, she overlooks certain uncomfortable facts. So, soon the case is reopened, and this time it is Detective Inspector lynley who must accompany Havers to Ludlow, with little more than a week to save the Met's reputation and Barbara's job. And the more they investigate, the more it looks as if the suicide was part of a much more sinister pattern of events.

    The Punishment She Deserves20
    4.1
  19. Elizabeth George delivers another intelligent, intricate mystery - New York TimesAward-winning author Elizabeth George delivers another masterpiece of suspense in her Inspector Lynley series.

    Something to Hide21
    4.1

Related books

  • A collection of short stories from the internationally bestselling author and creator of Inspector Lynley. Three of these stories were originally published under the title The Evidence Exposed. This volume contains two brand new stories, a revised version of The Evidence Exposed, and new introductions by the author to all five stories.

    I, Richard. Vergiss nie, daß ich dich liebe, englische Ausgabe
    3.5