I received this book for free from my own shelves in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Source: my own shelves
Well-Schooled in Murder
by
Elizabeth George
It is part of the , series and is a detective mystery, mystery in Paperback edition that was published by Bantam Books on May 1, 2007 and has 432 pages.
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Other books by this author which I have reviewed include A Great Deliverance, Payment in Blood, A Suitable Vengeance, For the Sake of Elena, Missing Joseph, In the Presence of the Enemy, Deception on His Mind, In Pursuit of the Proper Sinner, A Traitor to Memory, A Place of Hiding, Playing for the Ashes
Fourth chronologically and third in publishing order, this Inspector Lynley detective mystery series is set in modern-day England with this particular story set in West Sussex.
My Take
The very promising future of Matthew Whately was trashed…for such stupid reasons. The bullying, the code of silence, the contradiction of the school motto and it all comes down to…basics. Lynley is especially tormented about school loyalties: he owes Corntel. How can he expect these children to make the right decisions when he himself is so tormented?
What is it with parents who believe that one’s children must be men at such a young age? It’s yet another argument that parents should be licensed before being allowed to have children! When you feel what Kevin and Pats Whately lost and what others threw away…it just hurts.
Lord, George just had me twisted in knots with clues leading in one direction, then haring off in a thousand others. I don’t know how she kept track for Lynley and Havers!
St. James and Deborah are experiencing their own personal crises with losses that tie in with others. Then how George twists Corntel’s comment about how easy everything comes to Lynley; the truth of that comment is particularly poignant at the end. And I’m curious to see how George changes Havers’ life in the next book in this series, A Suitable Vengeance.
The Cover and Title
I see the bit of iron fencing on the cover as representing the guardianship of the churchyard as well as the confinement of the school. I don’t like it but it does reflect the story very well.
The title is particularly apt as the old school tie rears its ugly head — there must be a middle ground, even if one is Well-Schooled in Murder!
