E-book
A traitor to memory
Record details
- ISBN: 9780553906363 (electronic bk. : Adobe Digital Editions)
- ISBN: 0553906364 (electronic bk. : Adobe Digital Editions)
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Physical Description:
electronic resource
remote - Publisher: New York : Bantam Books, [2009], c2001.
Content descriptions
| General Note: | Title from eBook information screen. |
| Additional Physical Form available Note: | Also issued online. |
| System Details Note: | Requires Adobe Digital Editions (file size: 2633 KB). |
Search for related items by subject
| Genre: | Mystery fiction. Electronic books. |
Electronic resources
- Booklist Reviews : Booklist Monthly Selections - #1 May 2001
George writes Victorian novel-length mysteries (this latest weighs in at more than 700 pages) that fairly zip along, keeping the reader on the knife's edge of suspense, thanks to George's skill at weaving together intriguing characters, disturbing action, police procedure, psychological insight, and mordant wit. In this, the eleventh installment in the Lynley-Havers series, the Derbyshire detectives are called to London, at the behest of their superintendent, to investigate a vehicular homicide. The female hit-and-run victim was at the core of a celebrated child-murder case years before. George makes this far more a novel of character than a procedural by shifting points of view from the aristocratic, cerebral Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley to his rough-hewn, unmarried, somewhat bitter partner, Detective Constable Barbara Havers, and to the estranged son of the murder victim, a celebrated violinist tortured by his baby sister's death. First-rate suspense with a stunner of an ending. ((Reviewed May 1, 2001)) Copyright 2001 Booklist Reviews - Kirkus Reviews : Kirkus Reviews 2001 May #2
Posh Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley and his surly, recently demoted (In Pursuit of the Proper Sinner, 1999, not reviewed) sidekick, Constable Barbara Havers, take a backseat to a plethora of unlikable, haphazardly motivated characters who pop in and out over epic length (enormous even by George's garrulous standards) and nearly two decades. After Eugenie Davies becomes a hit-and-run victim, it takes 200 pages for her to get connected to violin virtuoso Gideon Davies, now undergoing therapy to discover the cause of his artistic block. In rambling rants to his therapist, he wonders whether his mother Eugenie's abrupt departure years ago is now haunting him. Gideon recalls their lodger, James, now prowling the Internet as TongueMan; his musical tutor Raphael; his school tutor Sarah-Jane; and, most importantly, Katja Wolff, the German nanny hired to look after his baby sister, a Down's syndrome child. As Lynley, Havers, and their cohort Nkata learn, Katja has just been released from pison, where she spent 20 years for killing her infant charge. Was she guilty? Is she now exacting revenge? And why did Gideon repress not only his sister's murder but her very existence? There'll be another car mishap, more death, more therapy sessions, and several bogus confessions (including one from Gideon's misogynist, controlling dad) before this wrenching saga of family relations lurches to a horrific end.George strews the guilt liberally, even smearing Lynley, before he finally deals with his past and his impending fatherhood. Meantime, her plot has serious problems, from Katja's lengthy silences to the overripe corn of Gideon's psychoanalysis. Even at diminished strength, though, George still stands several rungs up the ladder from her more superficial rivals.Author tour Copyright Kirkus 2001 Kirkus/BPI Communications.All rights reserved - Library Journal Reviews : LJ Reviews 2001 June #1
Violin virtuoso and former child prodigy Gideon Davies suddenly loses his ability to play. As he works with a psychiatrist to regain his gift, Gideon begins to dredge up memories from his childhood. Suddenly, people involved in an incident from his past, beginning with his mother, are being run over by a big black car. Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley and constables Barbara Havers and Winston Nkata are asked to investigate the hit-and-run murders and, like Gideon, must reconstruct the past in order to understand what is happening in the present. The interactions between Lynley and Havers, and their personal lives, are usually the most compelling aspects of George's (In Pursuit of the Proper Sinner) mysteries. This time, however, the detectives take a backseat to Gideon, whose self-exploration becomes both tedious and creepy. This mystery, George's 11th, is not as absorbing as her earlier books, and it is too long and predictable. Recommended with reservations. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 3/1/01.] Jane la Plante, Minot State Univ., ND Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information. - Library Journal Reviews : LJ Reviews 2001 March #1
An interesting twist from George: her protagonist is a young violin virtuoso whose sudden inability to play while center stage leads him into a dark secret in his past. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information. - Publishers Weekly Reviews : PW Reviews 2001 June #1
HClassical music, cybersex and vehicular homicide figure prominently in this sprawling epic, the latest in the bestselling Thomas Lynley series that has won George an enviable following on both sides of the Atlantic. This can only add to her growing reputation as doyenne of English mystery novelists. When Eugenie Davies is killed on a London street struck by a car, then viciously mangled as the driver backs over her Detective Inspector Lynley investigates. The suspects include J.W. Pichley, aka TongueMan, a cyber-roué with a penchant for older women; Katja Wolff, convicted murderess of Davies's infant daughter; and Major Ted Wiley, a bookstore proprietor in love with Davies. Inevitably, the trail leads to the dead woman's son, Gideon, a former child prodigy on the violin, now a renowned virtuoso suddenly and inexplicably unable to play a single note. Lynley and his longtime partners, Barbara Havers and Winston Nkata, unravel the mystery in their inimitable fashion, as the narrative turns backward, ever backward, in search of clues. Although some plot developments are initially confusing due to the book's occasionally non-linear style, the author's handling of narrative is consistently inventive. There are some amusing character sketches (including the skewering of an American Valley Girl to whom classical music is as foreign as Sanskrit) and some particularly moving moments. Faithful readers of George's previous mysteries should find this the most ambitious of the lot. (July 3) Forecast: With the BBC adaptation of the first Lynley case, A Great Deliverance, due to premier on U.S. TV this fall, George stands to scale new heights in sales. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
