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Book summary and reviews of Believing the Lie by Elizabeth George

Believing the Lie by Elizabeth George

Believing the Lie

An Inspector Lynley Novel

by Elizabeth George

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  • Published:
  • Jan 2012
    624 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

Inspector Thomas Lynley is mystified when he's sent undercover to investigate the death of Ian Cresswell at the request of the man's uncle, the wealthy and influential Bernard Fairclough. The death has been ruled an accidental drowning, and nothing on the surface indicates otherwise. But when Lynley enlists the help of his friends Simon and Deborah St. James, the trio's digging soon reveals that the Fairclough clan is awash in secrets, lies, and motives.

Deborah's investigation of the prime suspect - Bernard's prodigal son Nicholas, a recovering drug addict - leads her to Nicholas's wife, a woman with whom she feels a kinship, a woman as fiercely protective as she is beautiful. Lynley and Simon delve for information from the rest of the family, including the victim's bitter ex-wife and the man he left her for, and Bernard himself. As the investigation escalates, the Fairclough family's veneer cracks, with deception and self-delusion threatening to destroy everyone from the Fairclough patriarch to Tim, the troubled son Ian left behind.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"Starred Review. Tension would be greater with less verbiage, but this is still great George." - Booklist

"As usual in George's work, the process of detection reveals more about those doing the detecting than the mystery itself." - Publishers Weekly

"Pared-down George, weighing in at a svelte 600 pages, but still strewn with subplots, melodrama, melancholy, a wretchedly unhappy Havers and the impossibly heroic, impossibly nice Thomas Lynley." - Kirkus Reviews

This information about Believing the Lie was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Reader Reviews

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sue

elizabeth does it again
I thoroughly enjoyed yet another Lynley mystery. Elizabeth George never succumbs to a pattern, never ceases to surprise, never shows mercy to her readers (who might want favourite characters to be treated as they deserve.) As always, her title is apt in so many ways, most only obvious once the book is completed. I had to sit and digest what happened, after reading the last pages. I was dismayed, as usual, that I had already completed the book, and will have to wait another year to find out what happens next. Her literary story-telling is so skillful that I am surprised that any reader would think her books are too long. I was quite happy when I received it, thinking how lovely and fat the new book was.

dianec599

Believing the Lie
I am a big fan on Elizabeth George and have read all the Lynley mysteries. Unfortunately, the last three have lost George's verve and cleverness. Believing the Lie suffers from way too many skimpy sub-plots and needed a good editing to be up to her excellent standards. This was an OK book, but a poor showing for an excellent teller of a good tale.

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Author Information

Elizabeth George Author Biography

Elizabeth George is the New York Times bestselling author of twenty psychological suspense novels, four young adult novels, one book of nonfiction, and two short-story collections. Her work has been honored with the Anthony and Agatha awards, two Edgar nominations, and both France's and Germany's first prize for crime fiction, as well as several other prestigious prizes. She lives in Washington State.

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