Review of A TRAITOR TO MEMORY by Elizabeth George

Bantam, August 2002

Review by Jennifer Vilches

A hit-and-run driver kills Eugenie Davies on a rainy night in London. Superintendent Webberly has a special interest in the victim and assigns Detective Lynley and Constable Havers to the case. Their investigation of Eugenie's trauma filled past turns up a wealth of suspects. Meanwhile, Gideon, violin genius extraordinaire, is struggling to overcome his sudden inability to play by revisiting his childhood memories with a therapist. Gideon's story and the murder investigation are woven together into an explosive collision course.

I'm a fan of George's Lynley/Havers mysteries, so it pains me to say that this one really needed some editing. At over 1000 rambling pages, it's a long slog to get to an uncharacteristically disjointed ending. George does paint a fascinating portrait of a severely dysfunctional family, but that doesn't make up for unexplained motivations and weak plot elements. One of George's strengths has been getting readers involved in the personal lives of her detectives as well as getting drawn into the mystery at hand. Unfortunately, Lynley, Havers, and the rest of the usual inhabitants feel more like supporting characters in A Traitor to Memory.

Ultimately, I found this book hard to get into and difficult to finish. If you're new to Elizabeth George, you might want to start with A Great Deliverance (buy it) or Payment in Blood (buy it).

See more BooksForABuck.com reviews of mysteries by Elizabeth George.

Two Stars

Reviewed 6/07/04

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