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april_does_feral_sometimes 's review for:
A Suitable Vengeance
by Elizabeth George
The game is afoot! Wait, wrong movie. In fact, everything is awry in this 4th book in the Lynley/Havers mystery series. Why is Lord Asherton, Thomas Lynley, Eighth Earl and Detective Inspector of CID, not at center stage as the lead protagonist in this story? He’s a bit offstage, instead of being the one who is in the game for most of the book. Instead, it appears to be mostly forensic scientist Simon Allcourt-St. James who is following up on clues. Where is Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers? She doesn't seem to be on the job or be even known to the Lynleys.
Tumultuous Asherton family surprises are at the forefront. A decade after Thomas’s father died, the entire Lynley family with various childhood friends, lovers and servants are all coming down to the Howenstow residence for a weekend to introduce Deborah Cotter to the family. Thomas Lynley is about to marry Deborah, photographer and daughter of Joseph Cotter, who is a lifelong servant to the St. James’. Deborah has returned to England from America after a three-year absence. Peter Lynley, Thomas’s brother, is a SoHo drug addict, and Sidney St. James, Simon’s sister, is involved with a scientist and drug addict, Justin Brooke.
These two sets of young people have brought plenty of drugs to enliven their visit to dull Cornwall; however, the drugs run out and their party degrades into angry scenes, simmering resentments, wild sex and financial disputes. Thomas hates his mother, Lady Asherton, because she had an affair with Dr. Roderick Trenarrow while the Seventh Earl of Asherton, Thomas’s father, was dying of cancer. The Lady is still dating Dr. Trenarrow, inspiring Thomas to never-ending disgust with his mother. Deborah is pining for Simon, even while kissing Thomas, even though Simon is 11 years older and even though he is handicapped with a ruined leg - ruined by a car accident in a car driven by Thomas.Thomas can’t stop feeling guilty about driving drunk and crashing the car which almost destroyed Simon’s leg, but he is very happy now that Deborah has accepted his proposal. But before too long, he is disturbed by undercurrents between his best friend Simon and his fiancé Deborah. Simon is hiding his feelings with polite affection, but he finds being around Deborah difficult.
Only one person is calm and centered and not guilty of having plotted vengeance in some degree - Lady Helen Clyde. She flows in and out of the chapters soothing savage hearts, but even she can't divert the impending disasters.
Wow. I’m confused. Most of the conflicts above were mentioned in passing in the previous three books, but in ‘A Suitable Vengeance’, they either haven't happened yet or are happening now in this book’s present.
Oh! It’s a prequel! Oh.
Well!
Family drama abounds! Zowie! Have you been noticing all of the clues in the previous 3 books that the backstory for Lynley and his friends is drenched in pathos, trauma and broken relationships? All is revealed in ‘A Suitable Vengeance’. However, I’m still very confused. This is a not a mystery, but a regular novel with chic-lit tendencies. Or is it?
Despite a slow, slightly disjointed beginning of a hundred pages or so, the author Elizabeth George eventually brings into play the sad and ugly death of a Cornwall local which will send the Ashertons spinning out of their more comfortable miseries into the depressed universe the reader has come to know and love from the previous books.
A local man, Michael ‘Mick’ Cambrey. is discovered dead on the floor of the Cornwall cottage he has been renting for himself and his wife Nancy and baby, obviously castrated. He is a reporter at a newspaper which is owned by Harry Cambrey, his father, but he has been keeping his latest investigations secret. Did he uncover a story too deadly to know? Or could the murder have been by an enraged husband, since it is widely known Mick has been in and out of many beds, despite his marriage? Or was it Nancy’s father, John Penellin, or her ne’er-do-well brother, Mark? Mick had been disbursing paychecks when he was murdered and many of the local drug addicts were broke, including Peter Lynley. Could Peter or another addict have murdered Mick for the cash?
As if the Lynleys and the St. James’ didn’t have enough anxiety in their lives!
Hooray!