How far would you go to satisfy your darkest desires? In Payment In Blood, Elizabeth George explores the lengths men and women will go to claim whatever and whoever they want.

Plot

The story follows the aristocratic DI Thomas Lynley and the working-class DS Barbara Havers as they investigate a brutal murder at a snowbound Scottish estate. It’s a classic setup: a locked-room feel, a high-profile victim, and a house full of suspects with secrets to hide. It then descends into utter chaos with a missing person, espionage, spies, traitors and treason, adulterous men and women, alcoholics and addiction, and a protagonist who is so unprofessional it beggars belief.

Characters

Led by DI Lynley and DS Havers, the core cast includes forensic scientist Simon Allcourt-St James and his assistant, Lady Helen Clyde. These four are among the few series regulars.

This story is cluttered with too many characters. Many feel like filler, including some who serve no clear purpose at all. Take DI Lynley’s brother, Peter, for instance; he appears on pages 19 and 20 (if you’re on the same edition) and is never heard from again. Did I miss something? If you spot him elsewhere, let me know in the comments section below.

These figures are like vaguely sketched streetscape backgrounds: boring, predictable, and utterly forgettable.

More “Mills & Boon” than mystery?

I’m a big crime fiction enthusiast, and I’m drawn to unexpected, intelligent, and believable sleuths like Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, Brother Cadfael, DI John Rebus, and even Mrs Pollifax. Unfortunately, DI Lynley falls short here because his actions are driven more by petty jealousy and vindictiveness than sharp intuition.

Detective fiction should prioritise the case at hand. As in the first Lynley novel, A Great Deliverance, the focus on the protagonists’ romantic entanglements was so heavy I had to double-check the cover to ensure I wasn’t reading a Mills and Boons book.

The narrative frequently drags and stumbles, hampered by prose that favours “telling” over “showing”. It feels as though George lost her way and overcompensates by tossing in theory after theory and character after character. In the end, it’s just a big, bland, watery tale masquerading as a mystery.

To Read or Not to Read?

This book wasn’t for me. I only read this solely for the murder mystery promised on the cover, but I was quickly disappointed. This wasn’t the tight, perceptive crime fiction I expected.

If Agatha Christie were writing today, this is how she’d do it. Good plot, credible characters and a very perceptive and observant female eye.

Ted Allbeury

The back cover features a quote from Ted Allbeury, claiming that Elizabeth George is the modern-day Agatha Christie. I don’t know who Mr Allbeury is, but to suggest Christie would ever stoop to such pretentious, overblown prose is an insult to the Queen of Crime’s legacy.

To call this “Christie-esque” is pure claptrap. Devotees of Christie, Ellis Peters, or Ian Rankin will likely find this a chore. Ultimately, the book feels like a hollow fantasy of what an American author imagines an aristocratic English policeman to be – a caricature of the most tiresome kind.

Join in

• Have you read Payment In Blood? Does it live up to the Christie comparison for you?
• Did I miss something with the romantic subplots, or were they as distracting as I thought?
• If you happen to spot Peter Lynley anywhere else in this book, share your sightings in the comments section below.