Well-Schooled in Murder (Inspector Lynley Book 3)

This review is of the Kindle editionPublication date: September 4, 2007Publisher: BantamLanguage: EnglishASIN: B000W93CUOA horrible torture/murder of a 13 year old boy can not help but be an emotional strain on Inspector Lynley and Sgt. Havers. In addition to the mystery and its solution, Ms George writes movingly and believably of the effect the murder has on the boy's family and others who knew him. She also writes of the personal problems which affect Lynley and Havers while they struggle to identify the vicious killer and collect evidence for an arrest.Two complaints from other reviewers struck me. One complains of unnecessary extraneous matter. If you read mysteries solely for the puzzle it's possible that you would agree. Another complains of equating pedophilia with homosexuality. The victim has been brutally tortured before death and there is nothing to indicate that the torture was an interrogation of a 13 YOA boy. Women rarely commit such crimes. Unless one expects Ms George to change the sex of the victim to avoid the subject of homosexuality it is logical that the killer be a homosexual. Is it now politically incorrect for the villain of a piece to be homosexual? The characterization in this novel has nothing to do with bias and everything thing to do with reality. If you can not deal with that, then by all means avoid this book and stick to politically correct pap..One of the most well written and best researched novels which I have read in a long while. Elizabeth George deserves her reputation as one of the leading authors of British mysteries.

I wish I could give 0 stars to this book. Inspite of several reviews warning of extreme (gratuitous) violence, I ordered it anyway. I should have listened. The sexual violence against a child is so gratuitous it reads like borderline snuff porn. (How do I know this, you may ask? Because of my education in psychology & women's studies.) The writing itself is so very improbable & fantastic I find it difficult to explain - 1 example that was my "oh that's it moment " was when the horribly brutalized body of this child is discovered in a church yard, whom should it be discovered by but St. James's wife!! So the lead forensic examiner's wife just *happens* to stumble upon this body as she travels 100s of miles from home? Please. And then he's still assigned to the case? Please again. Also, Lynley was allowed to investigate a missing child from the school of his old school mate?? No conflict of interest there. Some creative license must of course be allowed but such egregious flaunting of police procedures doesn't make for an interesting mystery, it just makes for a disgustingly violent soap opera. This was the worst of the 4 of these novels that I have read - I kept giving them a chance because they are so popular & I thought I might warm to them. Well I haven't & I'm not going to. In every one of her novels, this author has running themes of extreme sexual violence, hatred of religion, & extremely weak plot lines. Additionally, she writes as if she swallowed a thesaurus & vomited it back up in no particular order. I am a very well read college graduate who scored around 800 on the verbal section of the GRE & I can't read one page of these novels without looking up at least one word. That isn't good writing - it is verbose & pointless erudition (there see, I know big words too). This book in particular but also the others in the Lynley series are just absolute trash. I returned 3 out of the 4 I own & the one that can't be returned went into the recycling bin where it will hopefully find a fate as something more useful. Toilet paper, perhaps?

Having read several Ms. George novels, I decided to start reading them in order.Being an earlier work (#3), makes little difference in Ms. George’s intricate writing. Her very unlikely British police team of Thomas Lynley and Barbara Havers are worlds apart in lifestyle and society; yet they blend beautifully.In this novel we have a 13 year old boy at a boarding school brutally murdered. The novel unravels in all directions on its way to having the mystery solved. There are quite a number of suspect characters involved in the story; none are very likeable. Anytime the reader thinks the plot is solved, Ms. George takes us in a new direction.There are numerous twists and unexpected happenings as she brings the reader to a conclusion. The end is quite unexpected as the author wraps the story very well; adding a very good human touch.There are parts of the book which have a tendency to bog down, before picking the pace back up. I found that a bit tedious. Tedium also affects the reader in the recurring character of Deborah St. James. I see where some others would rather see far less of her. I need to agree. Her character becomes much the whining cow. My preference would be to have her written out of the series.If you like very intricate, well written plots, this author fits the bill well.

"I've come for your help," he said in a rush. "I pray you'll do something, Tommy. I'm in serious trouble," so John Corntel, who was at Eton with Inspector Lynley. Little Mattie Whately, a scholarship student at Bredgar Chambers has disappeared over a weekend when most students are away. Nobody has missed him since he was supposed to visit a friend and his sports team received a note from the nurse. Soon, things get more and more complicated - the teachers are conducting affairs, having family trouble, visiting relatives, are addicted to pornography; the students having semi-secret drinking parties. You belong or you do not. It takes a long time to untangle everything and a lot of detours and false hope. Finally, Mattie's murder is solved, unsympathetic characters are dismissed, suicide is a way out and several open questions remain.

Although life at this public school was very well described, and the characters for the most part well drawn, I felt that the perpetrator's character did not really show them to be so enslaved that they would stoop to murder. I felt there were insufficient examples to show this as a special motive for this person. And as such I was not sufficiently convinced that they would commit this kind of crime. The weakest link for me was the suggested genetic link. Spoiler alert! The murdered boy would not have had the same genetic make up as the perpetrator, so the issue of colour blindness would have not given a clue to their identity. These things apart it is still an exciting book, despite its nauseating content book.

At a lesser public school in Sussex a junior boy, 12 years old, is murdered and his body is found many miles away in the Chilterns; he had been tortured. Inspector Lynley and Sergeant Havers of Scotland Yard become the investigating officers. This pair are from totally different social backgrounds and their work is often clouded by this but here they work together in equal standing in good co-operation - she even drives his silver Bentley! The other area of interest is the interviewing technique of Lynley. He relentlessly puts questions, and then rephrases them until he draws out the information that he is seeking. He does not sound frustrated (though he is) and he does not explain his line of questioning (which may seem unrelated to the crime). There is a good field for enquiries into the world of adolescent behaviour and relationships between staff and students. Not surprisingly the answers are from an unexpected direction. It is a very good story which never loses its interest and progression.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Elizabeth George although not a native of UK has accepted it together with its rules. She blends them with a thumping good story

I'm enjoying the series. Some of it I didn't like but I carried on reading. it was only the subject matter. I like the main characters and as always, you get to know them

My wife is well pleased with all the Lyndley books. Good plots and better than the tv adaptions.