Inspector Lynley Series
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.
Recommended Reading Order
Inspector Thomas Lynley of Scotland Yard, who first appeared in "A Great Deliverance", investigates the murder of a playwright at a Scottish country house hotel, where the members of a West End theatre company have assembled for the first reading of a controversial new play.
Well-schooled in Murder
- 432 pages
- 16 hours of reading
Author's style compared to P. D. James and Ruth Rendell.
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.
For the Sake of Elena
- 496 pages
- 18 hours of reading
Elena Weaver, in her skimpy dresses and bright jewellery, exuded intelligence and sexuality. A student at St Stephen's College, Cambridge, she lived a life of casual but intense physical and emotional relationships, with scores to settle and targets to achieve. Until someone, lying in wait on the bank of the River Cam, where Elena went running every morning, bludgeoned the young woman to death. Called into the rarefied world of academia, Inspector Thomas Lynley and his partner Barbara Havers find a tangled skein of love, obsession and desire - a maelstrom of emotion that has claimed Elena Weaver's life.
The power of parental love, a power which overrides all other considerations, all other loves and loyalties, but which can end in tragedy._
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."
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.
Deception on His Mind
- 752 pages
- 27 hours of reading
A sleepy Essex fishing village ignites when a local immigrant is found dead on the beach. Sergeant Barbara Havers probes a deceptively complex and highly personal case that reveals the terrible price people pay for deceiving others and themselves. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.
In pursuit of the proper sinner
- 720 pages
- 26 hours of reading
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 . . .
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.
Agguato sull'isola
- 634 pages
- 23 hours of reading
An isolated beach on the island of Guernsey in the English Channel is the scene of the murder of Guy Brouard, one of Guernsey's wealthiest inhabitants and its main benefactor. Forced as a child to flee the Nazis in Paris, Brouard was engaged in his latest project when he died: a museum in honor of those who resisted the German occupation of the island during World War II. It is from this period of time that his murderer may well have come. But there are others on Guernsey with reason to want Guy Brouard dead: his wives, his business associates, his current mistress, the underprivileged teenagers he mentored--any of whom might have harbored a secret motive for murder. As family and friends gather for the reading of the will, Deborah and Simon St. James find that seemingly everyone on the history-haunted island has something to hide. And behind all the lies and alibis, a killer is lurking. In order to bring this person to justice, the St. James must delve into Guernsey's dark history--both past and present--and into the troubled psyche of someone who may have exacted retribution for the most unspeakable crime of all. In A Place of Hiding, bestselling novelist Elizabeth George marks new territory in the darker landscapes of human relationships. She tells a gripping, suspenseful story of betrayal and devotion, war and remembrance, love and loss...and the higher truths to which we must all ultimately answer.
With No One As Witness
- 784 pages
- 28 hours of reading
The police never suspected a serial killer was at large until they found the third murdered boy, the first white victim, his body draped over a tomb in a London graveyard. Suddenly a series of crimes and a potential public relations disaster have Scotland Yard on the defensive, scrambling to apprehend a maniac while avoiding accusations of racism.Detective Superintendent Thomas Lynley, distracted by concerns for his pregnant wife, has been assigned to the investigation, along with his disgraced partner, Barbara Havers, who's fighting for her professional future. Winston Nkata, deservedly, if hastily, promoted to detective sergeant, is the black face who will speak to the media. But none of them can imagine the tenacity and ingenuity of the killer they seek . . . and no one is prepared for the savage, shocking instant when everything will change forever.
What Came Before He Shot Her
- 656 pages
- 23 hours of reading
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.
Grief-stricken in the aftermath of his wife's murder, Thomas Lynley cannot imagine how life will go on. He has left his job, his home, and all reminders of her behind him in London. Walking the cliffs of Cornwall, the last thing he expects to find is a body. At first sight, the young man seems to have died in a climbing accident. Tragic, but all too common in a place where nature is at its wildest, and the pathways are dotted with memorials. But Lynley cannot deny his instincts, and soon, against his every intention, he finds himself drawn into a murder inquiry. This time, as a potential suspect ...
DI Thomas Lynley is still on compassionate leave after the murder of his wife. The discovery of a body in a Stoke Newington cemetery offers Isabelle Ardery, his temporary replacement at the Met, the chance to make her mark with a high profile murder investigation. Persuading Lynley back to work seems the best way to guarantee a result: Lynley's team is fiercely loyal to him and Isabelle needs them - and especially Barbara Havers - on side. The Met is twitchy: a series of PR disasters has undermined its confidence. Isabelle knows that she'll be operating under the unforgiving scrutiny of the media, so is quick - perhaps too quick - to pin the murder on a convenient suspect. The murder trail leads Lynley and Havers to the New Forest, and the eventual resolution of the case. Its roots are in a long-ago act of violence that has poisoned subsequent generations and its outcome is both tragic and shocking.
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
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.
A Banquet of Consequences
- 676 pages
- 24 hours of reading
"As Inspector Thomas Lynley investigates the London angle of an ever more darkly disturbing case, his partner, Barbara Havers, is looking behind the peaceful fae of country life to discover a twisted world of desire, deceit, and murder. 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? After various career-threatening issues with her department, Barbara Havers is desperate to redeem herself. So when a past encounter with a bestselling feminist writer and her pushy personal assistant gives her a connection to the Cambridge murder, Barbara begs Thomas Lynley to let her pursue the crime" --
The Punishment She Deserves : An Inspector Lynley Novel: 17
- 608 pages
- 22 hours of reading
Award-winning author Elizabeth George delivers another masterpiece of suspense in her Inspector Lynley series: Lynley and his pugnacious and deeply loyal Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers find themselves up against one of the most sinister murder cases they have ever encountered.When a Member of Parliament shows up at New Scotland Yard requesting an investigation into the suicide of the son of one of his constituents in the beautiful town of Ludlow, the Assistant Commissioner sees two opportunities in this request: the first is to have an MP owing him a favour, and the second is to get rid of Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers, whose career at the Met has been hanging by a thread for quite some time. So he assigns Havers to the case and for good measure partners her with the one person who shares his wish to see the back of her, Detective Chief Superintendent Isabelle Ardery.But Ardery has her own difficulties. She is not happy to be sent away from London and as a result is in a rush to return. This causes her to overlook things, important things, and prevents her from uncovering an earlier crime that set everything in motion.
Elizabeth George delivers another intelligent, intricate mystery - New York TimesAward-winning author Elizabeth George delivers another masterpiece of suspense in her Inspector Lynley series.
Related books
I, Richard. Vergiss nie, daß ich dich liebe, englische Ausgabe
- 288 pages
- 11 hours of reading
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.
