Books Set in Europe: United Kingdom

Payment in Blood, Elizabeth George (1998)

Payment in Blood is the second in the Inspector Thomas Lynley / Barbara Havers mystery series.  This novel starts out as pure Agatha Christie.  On a cold winter night, playwright Joy Sinclair was found murdered in her bedroom in a snowbound estate in a remote town in Scotland.  She had been a guest at the manor along with a handful of actors who were to be in Sinclair’s next play, the producer, a drama critic, the director, and his lady love, Lady Helen Clyde, and the servants.  One of them must surely be the murderer.

For reasons that are not immediately apparent, Lynley and Havers were sent to investigate the murder.  Lynley enlists the help of his forensic friend, Simon St. James, to assist in the investigation.  Odd, because Scotland Yard had virtually no authority over the crime committed in Scotland.  Lynley is in love with Lady Helen, and so focuses his attention on Rhys Davies-Jones, who was sleeping with Helen in the room adjacent to Joy Sinclair’s room.  Havers and St. James, however, focus on Sinclair’s revised play, which they believe holds the key to the murder.

Complicating the investigation is the 1973 of Hannah Darrow.  What is her connection with the manor?  Was her death really a suicide?  Following clues leading to her death point to a spy scandal involving the family that owns the manor.

This is the second novel in the series.  The author is still introducing the characters.  Lady Helen seems to have many lovers.  Havers lives with her working-class parents and feels quite out of place with her aristocratic partner.  Lynley has some skeletons in his past, which are only hinted at, although we learned from the first book that he was the driver responsible for the accident that crippled St. James.

I am glad that I started this series in the middle where the characters are more developed.  Had I started at the beginning of the series, I probably would not have been compelled to read further.

Read: June 23, 2023

3 Stars

Other Books Read in the Series:

A Great Deliverance (# 1)  //  Read June 1, 2023

Well-Schooled in Murder (# 3)  //  Read June 29, 2003

For the Sake of Elana (# 5)  //  Read February 21, 1994

Missing Joseph (# 6)  //  Read June 12, 1996 and January 25, 2003

Playing for the Ashes (# 7)  //  Read January 6, 1996

A Traitor to Memory (# 11)  //  Read January 3, 2004

With No One as Witness (# 13)  //  Read May 13, 2023

A Banquet of Consequences (# 19)  //  Read July 4, 2018

Books Set in Europe: Paris, France

Paris: The Novel, by Edward Rutherfurd (2013)

Although the book is entitled Paris: The Novel, it’s actually a comprehensive history of France through the lives of six families from the reign of Louis IX, King of France in 1260 through 1968.  The novel jumps a bit back and forth in time, and I had to constantly refer to the family chart at the beginning of the book (which comes in a just over 800 pages).

Each of the 26 Chapters covers a specific point of history, with fabulous details of life during that specific period of time, all through the above mentioned six families.  The families come from all walks of life: from aristocrats, to peasants, to the bourgeois, to Catholics, Protestants, and Jews.  From generation to generation, the author spends more time with some families than others, but in total, the reader is treated to a fascinated history of one of the most well-known cities in the world.

We learn what court life was like during the reigns of the many French kings.  We learn of the events leading to the French Revolution.  We learn how the Eiffel Tower was constructed, and its initial reception in Paris.  The tale provided the background of the Huguenots and how they were expelled from France after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes.

Some characters are more fully developed than others.  The reader cheers Thomas Gaston on as he works on the Eiffel Tower.  His brother, Luc, leads a life on the edge and he shows us the seedy side of life in the city.

I thoroughly enjoyed this travel to France.

Read:  June 20, 2023

5 Stars

Books Set in Europe, United Kingdom, England

A Great Deliverance, by Elizabeth George (1988)  //  Inspector Thomas Lynley # 1

This is the first in the Lynley / Havers detective series.  It provides the origin story of how Barbara Havers, a somewhat cantankerous low-level Detective Sergeant in the Scotland Yard, begins working with the aristocratic Inspector Thomas Lynley.

The novel revolves around a murder in a small village north of London.  A teenage girl confessed to beheading her father, but some of the townfolk question whether or not she actually committed the crime.  Enter Lynley and Havers.

The reader learns some of the backstories of Lynley and Havers.  Lynley is dating Helen, but he is also something of a lothario.  We are also introduced to Simon St. James, who is a close friend of Lynley and planned on a career in law enforcement before he was crippled in a car accident.  Lynley was the intoxicated driver of the car.  St. James just married Deborah, who was a former lover of Lynley.

Meanwhile, we learn a bit about Havers’ background.  She comes from a lower-middle class family and lost her young brother to leukemia when he was a child.  His death lies heavy on her family life.

I didn’t find the mystery as intriguing as other stories in the series.

Read: June 1, 2023

3 Stars

Other Books Read in the Series:

Well-Schooled in Murder (# 3)  //  Read June 29, 2003

For the Sake of Elana (#5)  //  Read February 21, 1994

Missing Joseph (# 6)  //  Read June 12, 1996 and January 25, 2003

Playing for the Ashes (# 7)  //  Read January 6, 1996

A Traitor to Memory (# 11)  //  Read January 3, 2004

With No One as Witness (#13)  //  Read May 13, 2023

A Banquet of Consequences (# 19)  //  Read July 4, 2018

Books Set in Australia: Outback

The Dry, by Jane Harper (2026)

 

Australian Federal Agent Aaron Falk returned to his tiny hometown in rural outback Australia to attend the funeral of Luke Hadler, his closest childhood friend.  Aaron wasn’t eager to return to his hometown.  Aaron and his father had been run out of town twenty years earlier after Aaron had been accused of killing his girlfriend, Ellie Deacon.  Luke’s father implored him to return with a terse message stating that he knew Aaron had lied 20 years earlier about his alibi.

 

Luke had ostensibly committed suicide after murdering his wife and young son.  His farm was failing and he was facing financial ruin, thus suicide seemed a logical solution.  Luke’s parents, however, didn’t believed it was a murder-suicide.  Since Aaron is in law enforcement, albeit white-collar financial crimes, they implore him to investigate Luke’s death.

 

Small town, long memories.  Luke’s father isn’t the only person who thinks Aaron lied about his alibi.  While joining up the young ambitious Police Sergeant Greg Raco, Aaron unofficially assists in looking into Luke’s death.

 

A lot of people in the tiny town of Kiewarra have secrets.  The story is told in flashbacks, which give the reader two mysteries – the present-day death of Luke and his family, and the death of Ellie Deacon, which occurred 20 years earlier, when Aaron and his friends were just teenagers.

 

The Australian outback is suffering a drought, which provides an added layer of intrigue.  The draught was causing farms to fail, which in turn caused shops in town to suffer.  The local bar is up and operating, alcoholism is endemic, and nerves are frayed.  Physical fights were common occurrences.

 

The local school was short on funds and local townfolk applied for grants to help support educational programs.  Luke’s wife was the financial officer for the school.  Had she uncovered a source of funding?  Why did she have Aaron’s name and phone number in her possession?

 

Aaron must carefully negotiate the present, while letting go of grudges from the past as he delves into his friend’s death.

 

The Dry is the first book in the series featuring (Australian) Federal Agent Aaron Falk.  

 

 

Read:  May 29, 2023

 

4 Stars

Books Set in Europe, Barcelona, Spain

Cathedral of the Sea, by Ildefono Falcones (2006)

Cathedral of the Sea is a historical novel set in 14th Century Barcelona.  The novel spans from 1320 to 1384 and follows the life of Arnau, who was born into a serfdom.  His mother was brutally raped by the landowner on her wedding night and was later forced to become wetnurse to the lord’s family.  Arnau’s father escapes with his son to the free city Barcelona where they attempt to make a life together.

Life is not easy, but Arnau and his father find contentment.  Arnau became friends with a young boy near his age who becomes his adopted brother, Joan.  As children, the two boys were inseparable.  They find comfort worshiping at the foot of the Virgin Mary in the cathedral that is being built.  Arnau joins the stone-worker’s guild, called bastaixos, while his brother joins the Church.  Ultimately, Arnau becomes very wealthy and is instrumental in providing funds to the king for protecting the city.  In exchange for providing funds, the king forces Arnau into a marriage with Eleanor, a spiteful baroness.  It is a loveless marriage that was never consummated and could be Arnau's downfall.

Arnau befriends members of the city’s Jewish community.  This puts him at odds with the Church and the inquisition.  Joan has become an inquisitor, Arnau is hauled before his brother to answer for his sins.

[Spoiler Alert: The reader was led to believe that Arnau's mother had died.  She appears deep into the novel as a prostitute in Barcelona.

This is a very long novel and was originally written in Spanish.  I liked it, but didn’t love it.  Perhaps something was lost in translation.

Read:  May 27, 2023

3.5 Stars

Books Set in Europe: London, England

Courtiers, by Valentine Low (2022)

 

This book is an inside look at functioning of the British royal family.  The advisors to the Queen, and other working royals carry immense power and influence.  The courtiers are those whom Diana referred to as the “men in grey suits”.  They are around the royal family at official events and are, in many respects, the power behind the throne.

 

The author takes the reader through the private secretaries, personal secretaries, assistants and deputy secretaries from before Elizabeth II’s rule through Harry and Meghan.  Many courtiers held their positions for years before either retiring or moving on.  They are the trusted advisors of the monarch’s inner circle.  When the Queen was alive, Charles had his own courtiers and Kensington Palace (William and Harry) had their entourage.  The author describes the conflicts of having three separate households, each with its own agenda and people.

 

The book focused on the current royal family and was written shortly before the Queen died.  The book discussed the challenges the courtiers faced negotiated through the scandal of Prince Andrew and the explosive Megxit.  The author spent a great deal of ink on Harry and Meghan.  They didn’t come out well.  While the book recognized that Meghan, as an American, had difficulty adjusting to royal life, it also acknowledge that she was difficult to work with and many underlings in the household left their employment rather than stay working for the Firm.

 

I found the book mildly interesting, but not fabulously so.

 

Read:  May 18, 2023

 

3 Stars

 

Books Set in Europe: United Kingdom, London, England

With No One As Witness, by Elizabeth George (2005)  //  Inspector Thomas Lynley # 13

 

This mystery novel is the thirteenth in the Inspector Thomas Lynley series.  It had been nearly a decade since I read the last Lynley novel.  While each novel is a stand-alone mystery, it seemed that there was a lot in this book that relied on considerable knowledge of the characters backstories.  That being said …

 

New Scotland Yard officers, Inspector Lynley (Acting Superintendent Lynley in this volume) and his sidekick Constable Barbara Havers (she had apparently been demoted from Sergeant in the previous novel), have stumbled upon a serial killer.  Three mixed race young boys were left for dead before Kimmo Thorne, a young white, gay female impersonator, turned up dead.  The prior three bodies had been assumed to be runaways and their deaths weren’t thoroughly investigated.  It isn’t until Kimmo’s body is found that the police compare notes and realize that all the deaths were committed in a similar fashion.  To curb accusations of institutional racism, Winston Nkata was hastily promoted to Sergeant to serve as the face for the press briefings.

 

Lynley and his team’s investigation led them to Colossus, a low-budget organization intended to help at-risk children.  The Colossus employees and volunteers all have checkered pasts.  Could they have a hand in the murders?  There also appears to be a link to shady organization called MABIL (Men And Boys In Love), a group of pedophiles who groom young boys for sex.  When a fifth body is found, there are some substantial differences, leading the investigators to believe there may be a copy-cat killing.

 

In between following where the evidence may lead, the reader also gets a peek into the private lives of Lynley and Havers.  Lynley’s wife is expecting their first child, while Havers lives her solitary life and tries to connect with her neighbor.  Their lives are not without their own personal drama and tragedy.  [Spoiler Alert:  Lynley’s wife, Helen, was shot on her doorstep in the wealthy neighborhood of Belgravia.  By the time she was transported to the hospital, too much time had elapsed, and she was brain dead.  Both she and her unborn baby were taken off life support.  Also, the book ends with Lynley appearing to turn in his badge.]

 

This book comes in at over 600 pages.  While it kept my attention, it could have been pared down to about half that size.  I also found one plot thread to have been resolved too quickly.  Still, I enjoy reading about the gentry Thomas Lynley and his working-class side-kick, Barbara Havers.

 

Read:  May 13, 2023

 

4 Stars

 

Other Books Read in the Series:

Well-Schooled in Murder (# 3)  //  Read June 29, 2003

For the Sake of Elana (#5)  //  Read February 21, 1994

Missing Joseph (# 6)  //  Read June 12, 1996 and January 25, 2003

Playing for the Ashes (# 7)  //  Read January 6, 1996

A Traitor to Memory (# 11)  //  Read January 3, 2004

A Banquet of Consequences (# 19)  //  Read July 4, 2018