Saturday, December 10, 2011

Believing the Lie-Elizabeth George

Believing the Lie


Elizabeth George

Dutton, Jan 10 2012, $28.95

ISBN: 9780525952589



The police look into the drowning death of Ian Cresswell and rule he died accidentally. Although not one iota of counter evidence exists to hint at foul play, Ian’s affluent aristocrat Uncle Bernard Fairclough demands Scotland Yard Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley serendipitously investigate the death of his nephew.



With his friends Simon and Deborah St. James and with some of his staff like Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers, Lynley begins to find oddities in the death and with the extended family of the victim. The DI realizes Ian’s ex wife and abandoned son remain angry at him even in death as he dumped them for a man. However, the prime suspect is Bernard's son recovering drug addict Nicholas, but the industrialist who recruited him also remains as a potential killer of his nephew.





The latest Lynley police procedural (see This Body of Death) is an exciting tale that looks deep into the souls of the investigators, the victim and the family members in a convoluted case involving addiction, gay marriage, and sexual psychopaths as image supersedes substance. Although readers will know the climax relatively early, Believing the Lie is an engaging mystery as even the family believes the lies they tell one another to rationalize aberrant behavior.



Harriet Klausner





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