Just One Evil Act

Inspector Lynley #18

by Elizabeth George

Just One Evil Act

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Crime, Mystery Thriller, British Literature, Audiobook, Thriller

711 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Susan Elizabeth George is an American author of mystery novels set in Great Britain. Eleven of her novels, featuring her character Inspector Lynley, have been adapted for television by the BBC as The Inspector Lynley Mysteries.

She was born in Warren, Ohio, but moved to the San Francisco Bay Area when she was eighteen months old. She was a student of English, receiving a teaching certificate. While teaching English in the public school system, she completed an advanced degree in psychology.

Her first published novel was A Great Deliverance in 1988, featuring Thomas Lynley, Lord Asherton, a Scotland Yard inspector of noble birth; Barbara Havers, Lynley's assistant, from a very working-class background; Lady Helen Clyde, Lynley's girlfriend and later wife, of noble birth as well; and Lynley's friends Simon and Deborah St. James.

This Elizabeth George is distinct from the other author named Elizabeth George (Christian author).

Series:
* Inspector Lynley

Reviews

[Holly Robinson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Since I'm a writer, I hate posting negative reviews almost as much as I hate receiving them. But I'm just hoping to join in the conversation here and say, "What the hell happened?" As I was reading Elizabeth George's newest tome, Just One Evil Act, I found myself wanting to not only converse with her, but possibly shout at her, too.

I've been a loyal George fan through the years, buying every one of her novels in hardcover (and, occasionally, as digital books, too, when a book is too heavy to take on a trip and I want to finish it on vacation). Sadly, this book did not deliver. In fact, it made me furious. The Italian setting should have been a point in its favor, but instead George ladles out so many unnecessary details about the Italian setting and sprinkles so many (untranslated) Italian phrases throughout the novel, that frankly it reads like a research paper, and not a very interesting one at that. Lynley passes through the novel like a sleepwalker, Havers can't stop herself from staining her clothes, and I frankly couldn't buy into the weak plot line. I ended up skimming about a hundred pages.

"How can you do this to me?" I hissed in frustration as my husband came upstairs to bed.

"What?" he asked, baffled. "I told you I'd do the dishes, and I did."

I scowled at him. "Not you. Her." I jabbed a finger at the author photo of Elizabeth George. The book was so heavy I had to hold it on my lap on a pillow. "I don't even care what happens to any of these people anymore. I'm just bored!"

If you're a hard core George fan and feel you must read this, do yourself a favor and get it from the library. Save your money for something better.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Much too long for the story it told.

I love Elizabeth George, but this 700+ page tale needed a stronger editor.

There were only so many times I could go through the "Azhar's in trouble! Only Barbara can help him! Of course, Barbara can only help him by doing something unethical/terribly stupid! Quick, call the tabloids! Now . . . what will Lynley/Ardry/Salvatore/people in power do?" cycle before wanting to scream when the whole cycle repeated itself again . . . and again . . . and again.

Seriously, this was the continuous, looping plot of the book.

Plus, there was none of George's characteristic list of interesting suspects with lots of secrets to uncover. Digging into her suspect's lives is one of my favorite parts!

However, here the suspect list was so small, it was obvious where the guilt was going to fall. And the person upon whom it fell was boring! George gave us no insight into his thoughts/family/secrets at all. He had the weakest motive that I think George has ever given one of her criminals . . . or it just seemed terribly weak because she gave us no background for why he felt the way he did.

Basically, the mystery took a backseat to Havers' panic and blatant foolishness over her love/friendship with Azhar and Hadiyyah. And, while, I can take some of that and have always found their relationship interesting - it wasn't interesting enough to support a repetitive, 700+ pages.

Plus, the sacrifice that Barbara was supposedly making with all of her terrible decisions never came to pass. What good is a sacrifice, if you don't actually sacrifice anything and get off scott free? She needed at least a bit of a comeuppance.

I did enjoy the addition of Salvatore Lo Bianco, the Italian inspettore. I'd be willing to revisit him in a future book.

I also thought the ending was quite affecting. I do want to know what will happen to Barbara and Lynley next . . . will their relationship survive this? Will we see Azhar and Haddiyah again?

I'll probably never give up on George's Lynley series. I am invested in these characters. I just felt that this chapter in the series was bloated with too much circuitous plotting and too few interesting characters.

*language, occasional sexual references, occasional violence

[Belinda · Rating 2 out of 5]

How to tell when a mystery writer has been working on the same characters for too long:
1. She forgets to murder anyone until the book is more than halfway done
2. She invents new and horrible ways to torture old familiar much-loved characters
3. She inserts random italian phrases in to the text without translation, requiring the use of a translation dictionary to understand what is going on.

Additionally, this book is really really really really long. I used to love this series but it is well and truly done.

[Christina McLain · Rating 2 out of 5]

You really wish that the authors of some of these books would read the reviews here. Many, many reviewers had the same feelings I did about this bloody series.
Elizabeth George is a damn good storyteller but she has got to get a life, or more precisely let her characters get a life!! I wonder if she has fallen into the same trap as Peter Robinson.He appears to be using his creation, detective Alan Banks, to live out a middle-aged male fantasy as Banks is a man who can always always get beautiful much younger women to fall into bed with him.
George, on the other hand seems to be in love with her creation Inspector Lynley, and refuses to let him have a happy relationship. First, she kills off his beautiful pregnant wife, then she allows him a dalliance with his boss, a mean alchoholic bitch. Now he spends most of this tale chasing after a roller-derby (really?And he is an Earl?)loving professor who doesn't seem to want him. But if that weren't enough, the author can never cut the valiant Barbara Havers, Lynley's sidekick, a break. Havers, in the early novels, was saddled with her solitary life spent caring for her senile mother, and now she has to suffer from unrequited love,the return of her love's beautiful common-law wife, the abduction of his child, the scorn of her superior officers, the risk of losing her job and the few friends she really cares about. And still she doesn't get the guy!!!!Whatever.I do not think I am going to read her again. Enough already.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just One Evil Act by Elizabeth George follows up where Believing the Lie left off with Taymullah Azhar looking for his missing daughter Hadiyyyah. I was truly hoping this book would be the turn around book, when the characters would be set right and true sleuthing would recommence. This is George’s eighteenth book in her Lynley series and while I adored the first 15 books, I have struggled since. I truly adored the original Lynley/Havers relationship and that has been sorely lacking in the past few books. At first I attributed the characters no longer acting like themselves to Thomas’ mourning after the death of his wife, but that is difficult to keep as an excuse when next we read about his affair with his superior, Isabelle Ardery and when that is finally cleared up we are next reading about Tommy trying to woo Deidre, a veterinarian/roller derby star. Did I mention this is all before the one-year anniversary of his wife’s death? I have not even mentioned Barbara yet who, in this book, goes to lengths of incredulity, the Havers of earlier books would never have dreamt of, I miss the old Havers. There was something magical about how Lynley and Havers played off each other while solving a splendidly written mystery; I fear those days are long gone. Just One Evil Act takes the reader to Italy, where Lynley will attempt to get to the bottom of what happened to Hadiyyah. Just One Evil Act is a lengthy book, I happen to enjoy lengthy books, however, the best I can say about this well written book was that it passed the time. Maybe as a stand-alone book I would have actually enjoyed it, but after years of reading about Lynley and Havers and their respective lives, this book just saddened me.

[Jenna · Rating 1 out of 5]

(may contain spoilers)





I listen to books on CD almost exclusively now due to medical reasons, and I kept on yelling at the player (in my car or at home, listened to book on both as it was a l-o-n-g, drawn-out book) "Are you kidding me?"

The actions of Barbara Havers were so out of character (readers know what to expect from Barbara, her personality and character built up over many, many books) and this was such an antithesis of her... and each decision she made was so ridiculous, and egregious (warranting immediate firing, in my opinion)... I wanted to grab a hold of an effigy of Elizabeth George and shake it senseless! I know she annoyed many, many faithful readers with the murder of Helen two(?) books ago, but she is now winnowing down the remainder of her followers with this absolutely rubbish latest way-too-wordy novel.

And, can we say she is forcing "Deirdre" down our throats, much? I have no patience for this Lynley-Deirdre romance, they are completely unsuited and chalk and cheese and share NO common ground. What is the attraction for Lynley? The mind boggles?

What happened to Simon and Deborah this time out? A fleeting mention in a totally obnoxious scene with a cat??? And, since Lynley goes back to "double check" Simon's findings at the lab, I guess Simon isn't much help after all.... another key characterization gone south.

Errors abound... for example, Barbara mentions Bathsheba being a "mirror" image of her twin sister, with all physical traits (e.g. mole) being on complete opposite side whereas Salvatore the Italian detective says there is no difference between them when he sees Bathsheba and compares to her sister. Huh?

Then, the endless Italian phrasing and conversations and endless descriptions of settings and clothing and people was all so unnecessary (unless Elizabeth George is now being paid for, by the word). How this book was "wrapped up" made no sense and was completely beyond the lines of believability. Good thing I got this from my library because I would have been very angry had I purchased outright.

And, while I agree with some folks who have (spoiler) mentioned good riddance to Azhar and Haddiyah, and don't let the door hit you on the way out.... I fear we aren't done with them quite so easily. Ugh.

[Claudia Sorsby · Rating 1 out of 5]

What an infuriating book. By miles, it's the worst in the series--which I really liked very much (up to this point).

I'm getting a really strong feeling that George is tired of this series. She departed from it almost completely a couple of books ago, to tell the story of a hapless killer (only connected because his random victim was part of the series). Here, she spends hundreds of pages creating and building up new, unrelated characters in Italy. Anything seems to be preferable to continuing with the characters she's already set up.

My biggest problem was with Havers' complete (and completely out-of-character) insanity. Her character has been well established over the previous seventeen books; we know who she is, how she thinks and feels and acts (and yes, how she looks--we get it, she's a slob). Aside from doubling down on the slob element, nothing Havers actually does in this book made any sense. I kept muttering, "Oh, BS--Havers would never do that! Or that, or that! She knows better!"

Yes, she cares deeply about a man, but she's also not a total moron, which is how she acts all through this. Tipping off, and then working with a tabloid sleazeball reporter? Thinking she can handle or control him? Please. Plus, it's one thing to suggest that she doesn't pay much attention to minor work rules, but it's another thing altogether for her to suddenly start running around like someone out of a Hollywood cop-gone-bad movie, without so much as a thought to throwing over every professional/ethical standard she's ever had in her life. Nope, not buying any of it. There needs to be a reason, some reason, any reason, why she goes so thoroughly off the rails.

Several people have also commented on the apparent lack of editing, and it's sadly true, at both the structural and minor levels. Minor: Havers is described repeatedly as a slob, but at one point George throws her a bone, as someone notes her lovely white teeth. Uh, what? The woman's a human chimney, and nicotine famously stains teeth (as does tea, one of the few essential elements of her diet). Makes no sense.

Structural: The kidnapping story takes the first 350 pages of the book, more or less, and it could/should have been half that. Worse, while dozens of pages are spent on details of Italian scenery, food, and minor characters, at the actual end of the book, the major plot elements (like Havers' fate) are "settled" in less than ten. Havers' professional butt is saved for no apparent reason, in two different ways by two different people, one of whom has less than no reason to do so. Why? No idea; there's no explanation, nothing.

This lack of balance is a problem throughout. In one four-page section, there are no fewer than seven references to the fig bars the scummy private detective eats while trying to figure something out, but in the end, do we ever find out what actually happens to him? No. It's a microcosm of the book, really: Tons of unnecessary detail, crowding out the actual story.

Blurgh. George is a genuinely talented writer, and I've enjoyed her work for so long, which makes this even more disappointing. This is so far below her usual standard.

[Lewis Weinstein · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant first chapter ... Lynley is at a roller derby match. EG shows us that Lynley is different, or at least trying to be different, from the man he was before Helen was killed.

UPDATE 11/20/13 ...

This is a magnificent novel, perhaps EG's best ever.

Barbara Havers is at the center of it, in all her disheveled glory. Brilliant, persistent, mistake prone - she dominates the book. Lynley is there, an Italian detective is charming, a tabloid journalist is appropriately despicable, but this is Barbara's book.

The plot is complicated, involving kidnapping and murder, and it has its share of surprises. It is set (mostly) in the lovely town of Lucca, near Pisa; the descriptions are enticing.

On p.699 (yes, this is a long book) is a line about Barbara - "any man on earth would find himself lucky to have had in his life such a friend as you." I won't give the context, which would be revealing too much, but it brought tears to my eyes.

Elizabeth (if you're reading this) ... I'm looking forward to meeting you at the Key West Literary Seminar in January, after suggesting to Myles that he invite you.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

OK, to start with, I am a HUGE fan of EG. There have been some recent bumps in the road, and I REALLY wanted to love this. And in some ways, I did! The past two days I was agitated, and realized it was because I was SO annoyed at one of the character's actions -- she KNOWS better! WTF? etc.

Then reality took hold and I realized that this book was really good, since it was eliciting that kind of reaction from me...as in, disappointment at the actions of people who aren;t real (because, clearly they ARE real to me if their actions disappoint or annoy me -- does that make sense to ANYone? not really to me!)

As always, needed the dictionary....frequently wished I was familiar with Italian in this one...and not sure I am wild about the new woman in Lynley's life (there I go again, thinking these people exist)

This would be a good movie...except they would likely muck it up and cast a brunette for the role of Lynley as they did in the TV movies, which I cannot even watch, because the casting is so WRONG.

God, I sound weird.

Anyway, ending was not expected, nor especially liked, but not sure what else she could have done with it. But it felt a bit like she exhausted herself on the plot and resolution so she was at a point of not being sure how to wrap it up and she thought, well, I will just do THIS....I know she didn't do that, but that is slightly how it felt to me, and I have loved EG for YEARS.

[Antigone · Rating 1 out of 5]

Poor Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers.

Lynley's partner is a character created to elicit a wince. She's the visual equivalent of a three-car pile-up; socially inept (and unrepentant about it), stubborn, coarse, and cursed with the inability to think beyond the moment she's in or the emotion she's feeling. DS Havers may be competent on the job but, as her author takes fresh pains to point out, she's startlingly naïve for a member of London's metropolitan police force. And to make matters worse, she's fallen in love.

There's no hope to be had in a relationship with the Pakistani man living next door, and Barbara knows it. Still, she aims for an inroad by helping with the care of his daughter. And just as she musters up the courage to confess her attraction, lo and behold, who should saunter back into their lives but the mother of the child. Dreams are dashed well before the woman abruptly vanishes, daughter in tow.

Barbara attempts to take the disappearance on as a police case, but her boss won't allow it. She helps the blindsided father hire a private detective whom, the reader will perceive immediately, is an untrustworthy skunk. Critical days pass with no lead in sight when the mother suddenly reappears to accuse the father of kidnapping. Apparently the child disappeared from a marketplace in Italy. Chaos ensues, though Barbara's boss still insists on non-involvement; her superiors believe this is a matter for the Italian authorities to pursue. Anxious for progress and out of options, Barbara resorts to the tabloids - moving to extort the police through public shaming to allow her to investigate.

How she remains employed is the central mystery here for me, but she does and continues to be through a painfully escalating series of stupid choices, missteps and professional gaffes. Everyone in fact, with the sole exceptions of Lynley and his Italian counterpart, is at his or her worst in this story - lying, cheating, sniping, undercutting, colluding and abetting the darkest and dumbest behavior from each other, all and sundry. It's a miserable tale filled to the brim with remarkably ridiculous people.

Poor Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers. Just one evil act indeed.

[Andra Watkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sigh.

I used to love this series. Note to Elizabeth George and her people: GET A GRIP. Books need editors, even when the author makes piles of money and has a ready following. This book is 300 pages too long, packed full of details and description that goes nowhere. The plot is absolutely unbelievable, with the characters behaving in ways that aren't true to who they've been in this series. And the Italian was both pompous and distracting.

Personally, I think George is I sick of this whole thing, but she makes too much money from it to stop. I for one plan to stop contributing.

[Marcie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ms. George's need to show us all her worldliness and sophistication is pathetic. And annoying. It's bad enough that we've spent years putting aside her American pretensions to British-ness for the sake of a good story but now we all have to see how very Continental she is as well. Oh. Lucky us. The Italian dialogue is a ridiculous waste of space since it has to be translated in the next paragraph anyway - probably one of the reasons this book is a billion pages long. The only purpose it actually serves is to interrupt the flow of the story and remind us how very quaint and insular we American readers are. Maybe it's to inspire us to run out and buy an Italian phrase book so we're not such an embarrassment to her. I'm on page 120 and had I not paid full price for the hardcover I wouldn't bother to read further. Won't make that mistake again. In the future her books will come into my hands in paperback from the used bookstore only. Damn! I knew I should have bought the Amy Tan instead...

[Janet · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wasn't expecting this book to be over 700 pages, and I skipped large chunks and still kept up with the plot.

I've grown disenchanted with the Lynley series for a few years now-the books have become downright depressing from the first page. With this book, it struck me how little help Lynley was to Barbara-he seemed much more interested in pursuing Daidre while keeping his aristocratic toes carefully out of the s**t Barbara was creating, telling himself that he'd be of more use if he wasn't in the picture. Aside from his being able to speak Italian, which he used a few times, I can't see that he was of any help at all. I'd have thought that by now, with the years they've worked together and the personal crises they've helped each other through, he'd have more trust and faith in Barbara than he seems to have here. And while I was happy that Barbara was the focus of this book-I've grown to like her a lot more than I like Lynley-I fervently hope that she'll find some happiness in the next book, because she deserves it-she's incredibly loyal and has shown time and again she'll risk everything for her friends.

As to the plot, could it be any more Byzantine? Also, it irritates me when a book written in English starts tossing around foreign language words that I have to look up. After a few times of this, I stopped caring, and was just thankful that the long conversations were in English; I began to suspect that the author wanted to be able to use a trip to Italy as a tax write-off.

I admit that the last fourth of the book was fast-paced enough to keep me reading, and the ending took me by surprise. Hope the next book isn't more than 400 pages.

[Jill Heather · Rating 2 out of 5]

I do not believe that a single character in the earlier books would have acted the way they did in this book.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well I still haven't forgiven Elizabeth George for killing off Thomas' wife and baby a few books ago, but I'm a little less mad at her after this book...it's pretty darned good---and pretty darned long. This entry in the Thomas Lynley series brought the Barbara, Azhar, Hadiyyah relationship to a resolution (at least for now) in a long and very complex plot revolving around Hadiyyah's kidnapping. Barbara Havers, an intriguing character and a stanch supporter of Thomas through all the many Lynley novels, is front and center in this story, as she crashes to the rescue w/ her usual abandon of protocol and common sense, but w/ great heart, loyalty and determination...or stubborness. By turns throughout this book, I wanted to strangle her or hug her, but until the end the strangling impulses were far outnumbering the hug ones. Thomas, by contrast, has some light moments (well-deserved after his time of grief) and even finds the possibility of new love. When he's not pursuing his roller derby crush, he attempts to pull Barbara's burning bacon out of the fire, and works to help solve the kidnapping and bring about the rescue of Hadiyyah. The plot was filled w/ more twists and turns than a spy novel, w/ many unexpected villains and more than a few evil acts, in contradiction of the title. And while I've always been frustrated by frumpy, stubborn Barbara, she also displays even more than her usual grit and courage, and picks up a surprising admirer while in Italy (although it's doubtful anything can come of that, but maybe...). And even though a number of times I wanted to kill her, I couldn't help but love her a little, too. A very good read indeed.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Elizabeth George just seems to have lost her way after she killed Helen. I think her good books are the ones before Helen died and it's been almost painful since then. This book has more going for it than the other ones since Helen's death. First of all, it features Barbara Havers. She is such an unique character that it's just fun reading about her. Unfortunately she's a little much to be taking the whole book on her back. She works best when she works with Lynley and they haven't worked really together since Helen's murder. That's really the crux of the problem with her recent books. She has kept the two main characters virtually apart and that has kept the magic away.

I think George has lost her grip on Lynley's character. This book is supposedly a year after Helen's death and he is already on his second affair. I just don't buy it. Your wife and unborn child are murdered on your front doorstep and you immediately have two very inappropriate affairs. You can tell this one is like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. You want to scream at him, "What are you doing?" It just has disaster written all over it.

My opinion is that George has to reunite her two main characters on an actual case not based on their private lives for this series to get back on track. Until then I think she will continue to disappoint her readers.

[Trish · Rating 4 out of 5]

George has been writing this series featuring Inspector Lynley and Detective Sergeant Havers since 1988, and this is her eighteenth novel in the series. As I listened to the incomparable Davina Porter read this novel, I thought that writing this gigantic mystery seemed less like hard work and more like fun for George. She is so experienced, and so familiar with her characters by this time that she appears to riff off them with ease. She has them travel to Italy when Barbara discovers her favorite neighbors are in serious trouble.

George creates a glorious new character, Salvatore lo Bianco, presumably just for this book. (Sad; I’d love to see him again.) Salvatore is a police inspector (Ispettore lo Bianco). We meet Salvatore’s former wife, his mother, his children, his boss and colleagues, rounded characters all. George shows off her skill with this move to Italy and handling the introductions, as well as presenting an extremely complicated mystery featuring an abduction and a murder, placing Barbara’s neighbor, the Pakistani Muslim microbiologist Azhar in the frame. The story has so many angles and curves we are left gasping. But George sails through ably, with Davina Porter’s narration smooth perfection. Imagine the great time she had doing research for this one…

Anyway, after reading this book I found myself thinking that Elizabeth George is even more deserving of admiration. It is a real achievement to pull off this enormous cast of characters (including Lynley’s new love interest, Daidre Trahair), a mystery that looks completely damning for a member of a racial minority, and the byzantine conundrum of Italian justice. She keeps piling obstacles in Barbara’s path but Barbara keeps plowing through in her indomitable way, struggling to save a friend whom she believed in through every turn of the screw. Who would not want to have such a person on one’s side?

George handles the pacing well, by placing Salvatore and the inexorable, if slow, pace of justice in Italy in contrast with the fall of a sickle in the person of tabloid journalist, Mitchell Corsico. Corsico is constantly on deadline and infects the course of justice with misinformation. We fear for Barbara who goes a long way out on a limb, only to have the limb cut off.

Elizabeth George is at the top of her game in this episode, earning her reputation once again. George continues the legend of Lynley and Havers, both of whom we now know far better than our own loved ones at home. Davina Porter, narrator for the audio production, is also at the top of her game. She makes one marvel.

A word about the Italian phrases: George for the most part helps us out by giving us the meaning in subsequent sentences. Otherwise, we are confused, just as Havers is. This is intentional, and very nicely done. A little mystery within a mystery keeps us on our toes. About the length of the book I can only say that we readers made out like bandits. The cost per word is a bargain. While I ordinarily dislike huge novels, I’ve read several of the Lynley mysteries, and I always look forward to another. We have here one that could have qualified as two novels, but we only paid for one. I can’t think of another author that could have pulled this off within two years, or whatever it has been since George’s last book was published. It’s a miracle, no? I can hear George now: "Niente."

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Opinionated. Wrinkled, Reeking of Smoke. Definitely NOT a fashion-plate. This is Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers of New Scotland Yard. Assistant to Inspector Thomas Lynley, she has been most annoying and helpful in all of the Lynley Novels but this time she is on her own.

Barbara’s neighbor, Taymullah Azhar, his daughter and her mother are close friends – so it was thought. When Angelina takes the daughter and disappears for months; Azhar and Barbara commiserate daily. She becomes close. He does not. Then Angelina reappears with a fiancé but no daughter. She has been kidnapped in Italy!

Lynley is called in at one in the morning by a hysterical Havers. Ashar’s history is at the forefront of the problems. It seems he has another family in London to whom he is still married. Angelina’s parents and twin sister disowned her when they heard of him and hate anything that isn’t White, English and well-mannered.

There are private investigators, blackmailing newsmen, a very nasty Inspector who hates women in charge and is bound to rid the police of them all, a little girl who is grabbed back and forth between parents, lovers and the Italian police who have their own degrees of corruption.

I have loved Elizabeth George novels since A Great Deliverance in 1988. She is the mistress of mystery, humour and a teller of wonderful tales. If you’ve never read her novel, now is the time. Just One Evil Act can be read alone and then you will know what you’ve been missing.

[Jay · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have read all of Elizabeth George's Inspector Lynley novels, and this will be my last!
The early stories were shorter and crisper, and the characters interesting and believable. After some considerable delay I read Believing the Lie, and decided to continue with One Evil Act as Haddiyah is one of the truly appealing characters in the series. Regrettably, Lynley and Barbara are becoming caricatures of their former selves; the permutations of the plot were extended beyond reason. The untranslated Italian was an irritant as it seemed to be relevant to the plot at least sometimes. I am sad to say goodbye to people that I used to like, but don't any more.

[John New · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unfortunately I think the Inspector Lynley series is beginning to run out of steam as it seems to be drifting further and further away from what made the early ones good. I've read them all, not sure that if I had read this as my first it would convince me to read the rest. Will probably buy the next but more out of habit than desire. Plot line isn't convincingly authentic to me as a British police story, don't believe even under stress Haver's would act as she does etc....

[Lori · Rating 4 out of 5]

So many things were good about this book but some were frustrating and disappointing as well. The most frustrating was the length. Really, this actually decent story could have been more effectively told in 200 less pages. There were a number of times I could feel my eyes glossing over with the repetitive nature of much of the storytelling like the far too numerous interactions Barbara had with the annoying reporter and the equally annoying private detective and his tech expert. Lynley's character also became disappointing to me. It started out great with his well-meaning efforts to try and help Barbara see the disastrous path she was moving down and coach her back to some sort of reasonable and professional behaviour. His work in Italy with the interesting and terrific character of Salvatore also showed Lynley in his best light. He was vintage Lynley in his perceptive and insightful approach to working with Salvatore to track down Hadiyyah. It was after he returned to England that his normal strength of character no longer rang true for me. The Lynley I have come to know would never have allowed Barbara to carry on as she was for as long as he did nor let her get away with her self-destructive behaviour as he did once he found out how deep she had gotten into this situation. Its almost as if he no longer became part of the story, melted in the background and became a total enabler of Barbara's poor choices; an idea of a character rather than a living, breathing one. Conversely though I overall really did enjoy the book. The mystery of Hadiyyah's kidnapping and how it eventually was solved was really well done and the fact that in the end, the actual perpetrator did have to face some consequences for the illegal act committed, leaving so much of his life behind and having to start anew elsewhere. The murder mystery and its eventual conclusion was also mostly satisfying though not as intricate a mystery as the kidnapping was. For the most part, as always, I really enjoyed Barbara. She could be so frustrating and pigheaded at times and yet then do or say something that made you smile or showed you again not only how clever of an officer she is but how truly big-hearted and compassionate she is. Her babbling explanations undertaken with the non-English speaking Salvatore were vintage Barbara and surprisingly charmed and intrigued the Italian detective. Speaking of Salvatore, he was fabulous, a really excellent character and the salvation (no pun intended) here when one was getting frustrated with Barbara's single-mindedness or Lynley's detachment. He came off as an astute, methodical and intelligent detective with a charm that was evident often. He also was nobody's fool who was never bamboozled by Doughty's altered numbers, the Upman's bluster and aggression or Barbara's shenanigans. I hope we see him again in a future story. In closing I do agree with many of the other readers, that, I hope in George's next story we can look forward to a return of Lynley and Barbara working together as true partners again and not so caught up in personal matters. I'm hoping for a really satisfying and complex Elizabeth George mystery that takes the combined efforts and intelligence of these two detectives focused completely on the crime or crimes at hand without all the personal baggage and selfish pursuits.

[Serena.. Sery-ously? · Rating 1 out of 5]

Sono indecisa se essere indignata o solo triste: durante la lettura di questa vergogna mi sono detta che non è la George a scrivere, probabilmente ha un ghostwriter (o più di uno, viste le 957 ripetizioni) perché non è più in grado di scrivere o forse si è scocciata di Linley e Havers (pruriginosa sensazione che già mi aveva colpito nel libro precedente), non so.. Fatto sta che se invece lo avesse scritto lei e non fosse - per dire - affetta da demenza senile, l'indignazione sarebbe il minimo.
La George è un'autrice che venero, la consiglio sempre con grande piacere e soprattutto Linley e Havers sono sempre stati personaggi molto amati, quindi la pugnalata alle spalle è atroce.

Innanzi tutto il poco rispetto per il personaggio di Barbara che è totalmente snaturato, una pazza che agisce senza logica e per cui è veramente difficile fare il tifo. Il finale? RIDICOLO.

La scrittura è noiosa e ripetitiva, a volte credevo che come mio solito avessi premuto la parte sbagliata dello schermo del kindle e che fossi tornata indietro perché sono ripetute proprio frasi intere a distanza di nemmeno una pagina, cose davvero imbarazzanti, giuro!

Poi vabbé, sempre sostenuto che Linley e Havers fuori da Londra non danno mai il meglio di sé, ma questa avventura italiana è ai limiti del paradosso.. Oltre all'irrealtà dei personaggi fuori dal loro contesto, c'è anche la parte di stereotipi sul popolo italiani: siamo dipinti come un popolo di poveri deficienti, mammoni, sfaticati e tanto tanto cretini.

Un fallimento totale, che pianto 😢 😢 😢 😢

[Ellinor · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've had my problems with the Lynley books ever since Helen's death. What still kept me reading them were the main characters, especially Barbara Havers. She's very special and I like her unorthodox methods. But in Just One Evil Act Barbara's behaviour often was hardly bearable. She acts extremely immature, naive and often simply stupid. While this is partly understandable especially when you look at the miserable live she's leading it makes reading this book very tedious.
On top of that the actual crime seems very contrived and obvious. Most of it is set in Italy and Elizabeth George seems to use every possible cliché, not just on Italy and the Italians but also on Pakistanis/Muslims and private investigators.
What makes me still want to continue reading this series is how the book ended (except for Azhar's story): Things seem to progress in Lynley's private life, Barbara finally is in her right mind again and Isabelle Ardery even looks human. I'm curious for the next volume and how things will continue!

[Larraine · Rating 5 out of 5]

All it takes is "Just One Evil Act" to turn someone's world upside down. This book is more about Barbara Havers and less about Inspector Lynley. Barbara has become very attached to her Azarh, Pakistani microbiologist neighbor and his 9 yr old daughter, Haddiyah. The scientist left his wife to be with his daughter's mother, Angela Upton, but never married her. She left, came back and left again - this time taking their daughter with her. To complicate matters, the child has her mother's surname and her father's name is not on the birth certificate. Now she has gone and can't be find. He is frantic to find his daughter. Barbara agrees to find him. Then it begins. This is a long book - over 700 pages. It is complicated beyond belief, sardonic, funny, and sad all at the same time. One of the sayings Barbara likes to use is "For my sins..." For those sins, Barbara is assigned to DI John Stewart who despises her and is using her as a clerk typist. Lynley's wife has been dead for a little over a year. He also ended a short but unsatisfying affair with his boss, Isabelle. The book opens with Lynley enjoying a roller derby meet, something that an Earl who happens to be a policeman shouldn't be enjoying. However, he is really interested in one of the participants, Dairdre, a large animal vet he met while walking the cliffs of Cornwall after his wife's death. Lynley tries in vain to prevent Barbara from getting involved in her neighbor's problems, but, of course, she does anyway. This may be George's best books yet. There's so much in it - it's a delight to read and savor.

[Clare O'Beara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Latest in the series about Lynley and Havers of New Scotland Yard. A little girl goes missing - a half-Pakistani, the friend and neighbour of Barbara Havers. Barbara gets involved though it is not her job, even finding a private investigator, and turns out the girl is with her mother in Italy - but is then kidnapped from her mother's care. The father swears he did not take her, as the mother suspects, to bring her to Pakistan. But then where is the child?

Sadly this is too long and has too much Italian in it, and too many pages we skip because we don't care about any of the ponderous Italian police, since they won't be part of the series, and it has to be said, too much Barbara Havers behaving irrationally and stupidly. It never occurs to her even when she knows she is being tailed and filmed and various computers are being hacked, that her phone might be tapped - not even the hacker thinks of that, which is just unreal.

Lynley is beginning to recover from his wife's untimely death but is now trying to get involved with a woman who clearly doesn't want an involvement. Well it's an improvement on the lush he was with in a previous book. Nkata is barely present, he gets about three lines. The book seems not to have been edited at all as there is far too much padding and not enough to keep our attention.

[Sharon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I finished "Just One Evil Act" by Elizabeth George this afternoon. I'm in that awkward place right now where I keep thinking I need to get back to reading to find out what's going on with the characters! They were totally intertwined in my life. After over 700 pages, I guess that could be expected but it wasn't just the length of the book. As usual with George, it was so well written it could make lesser writers sob in frustration. It was complex, intricate, exasperating, touching, true always to itself and its characters--everything I want in a book. And lots of red and reddish-pink herrings.

Next up I will have to be something attention-grabbing, fast-moving and yes, shorter. :)

I read some reviewers on here complain about the use of Italian phrases and words without translations inserted right there but I actually enjoyed that. It was a challenge to use the context to figure it out but it took nothing away for me. If anything, it set up the confusion and frustration that people who speak only one language would have in dealing with a foreign legal system.

There were SO many characters, some very well developed, some used as only cameos, but all added to the richness that I experienced with this book. I have given very few 5-star ratings to books on here. This one was one.

[Mal Warwick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picking up a new entry in the Inspector Thomas Lynley series is like revisiting an old friend — in fact, a whole coterie of old friends, with all their quirks and characteristics intact. In Just One Evil Act, the eighteenth novel in the series, Elizabeth George affords us a long yet none too leisurely visit with Lynley, but even more so with his long-lasting partner in crime investigation, Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers.

Havers is a piece of work. With a body shaped like a barrel, and a wardrobe that any self-respecting Salvation Army store would be likely to reject out of hand, Havers is anything but a typical police officer. She also swears freely and routinely disregards orders — not just those from Lynley, who has proven to be endlessly forgiving, but from Lynley’s boss, Detective Superintendent Isabelle Ardery, who is decidedly less so.

Havers’ life revolves around her job with Lynley and, in any time that’s left over from work, a bright and charming nine-year-old girl named Hadiyyah Azhar, who lives with her father in an adjoining house. Now Hadiyyah has been spirited off by her mother to a place unknown, and Barbara is as frantic as the little girl’s father. Disregard for procedure leads to insubordination and ultimately to outright rebellion as Barbara enters upon a search for the girl that takes Lynley and later her to Lucca, a picture-book medieval town in Tuscany in northern Italy. Along the way she finds herself figuratively in bed with an unscrupulous tabloid reporter (is there any other kind?), an English private detective with the morals of a fruit fly, and a brilliant Italian police inspector.

Elizabeth George, who is after all a Texan and not English, does a terrific job conveying the way of life at New Scotland Yard. She appears to put on an equally creditable performance in showing how the very quirky Italian justice system works. But she uses Italian rather more freely than an English-speaker with no knowledge of Romance languages might like. My Spanish helped me some, but I found a lot of the dialogue in Italy just as confusing as it was for Barbara Havers.

Just One Evil Act isn’t the very best of George’s Inspector Lynley novels, but it’s a worthy addition to the series. The characters behave in believable ways, lending depth to what we’ve previously known about them, and the suspense holds until the end. It’s a good, solid read.

[MBP · Rating 4 out of 5]

Elizabeth George's ability to lay bare the inner lives of her characters - the workings of their minds and hearts - shines in the latest Lynley and Havers novel. What do you do when the mind says you should follow one path, but the heart urges another? How far are you willing to go, and what will you sacrifice? All the characters, especially Barbara Havers, must confront these questions, and make difficult choices. The book is a bit bloated, and at times the numerous subplots detract from the main story. It is maddening, comical, heartbreaking, and yet hopeful. Highly recommended.

[Anke · Rating 2 out of 5]

Before I say anything about this book, I'd first like to point out that I have read all of the other 17 previous Lynley/Havers books in the series and liked most of them. Not all of them to the same degree, but I generally enjoyed reading them, even the atypical "What Came Before He Shot Her" that many fans seemed to dislike. So I thought that I might feel similar about this one. I even saved it up to read on vacation. And then... this.

Going by Kindle percentages, I really detested the first 40% of this. While forcing myself through pages of pages of dull descriptions that should have been edited out, I actually came up with several different theories -
had this been written by somebody else to continue a lucrative series?
Was Elizabeth George tired of writing about the same people for two decades and thus tried to prove that this series is dead with this book?
Did she have her mind on other things and hammer this out as quickly as possible?
Did she rely on there being an editor who never appeared?
Did she need to prove some relevance of Italy to her work for some tax relief for a vacation?

I really don't know. But there are so many things wrong with it.
Sloppy writing - Havers repeating the same expressions over and over and over. Like, I wonder who many times she says "Got that in a [insert name of a container - usually bucket, with some variations]" throughout the book to express that she understood something. It seems a new mannerism. A British expression that Elizabeth George recently learned and wants to show off?

And speaking of showing off: Why are there all those Italian words and sentences sprinkled throughout the text? Since I speak Spanish, I could guess the meaning for most of them, but otherwise you can only guess from the context because they don't get translated. So yes, yes, much of the story is set in Italy, but readers wouldn't forget that even without throwing in random words in Italian. An example? A dead person's wallet is found, and in the text, it is only referred to as "portafoglio". There is nothing culturally different about Italian wallets, it does not help the plot to say it in Italian, and yet, just to show off... foreign language skills? The mystifying nature of non-English-speaking countries?... it's a portafoglio. The same goes for a market, where important scenes take place: It is, forever, a mercato, no matter if it in a scene, conversations are supposed to be held in English or Italian at the time. And it all reaches a point where this doesn't add a bit of Italian atmosphere but just starts to appear bizarre.
Oh. And. Italy. All those cliches. The Italian mammas are generally dramatic, Catholic, unreasonable ladies who pamper their sons, who, in turn, live at home and let themselves be spoilt until they get married. Italians are disorganized and often overwhelmed by emotions - be it anger or lust. They continuously drink coffee with sweets that invariably melt on the tongue. And so on, and so on. I kept feeling like I could hear the author behind the narrator, lifting her finger and saying "See? I've been to Italy for a week or two! So I know exactly what people there are like. It's all so very different! Here are some stereotypes and gratuituos Italian words to prove it!" Meh.

The plot, which barely advances through half of the (very long) book. For the first half, I considered just giving up - but I paid full price for this and read all the previous ones. Then, at 50%, things seem to get resolved, and I felt some disbelief that I should have just as many pages still ahead of me. At 60%, things seemed to flow a little better and reading seemed less tedious. I'm currently at 70% and there have been some more twists that felt a bit like afterthoughts to fill a planned number of pages, and I fear that more of those will follow until the book is finally over.

And lastly... the characters. Most of all, Havers. She gets reduced to her most prominent traits (badly dressed, red high-top trainers, junk food, cigarettes, following her gut, bristling when dealing with authority) and the result is a completely unreasonable madwoman who runs through the story like a headless chicken, apparently out of a half-conscious love for Azhar. Weirdly, Hadiyyah, who seemed to have a play a much more important role in her life in the previous novels, seems sort of irrelevant to her now, and there is hardly any interaction. Her motivation mostly seems to be to help Azhar and she does so in the most panicked ways possible. And after reading so many novels where she was a main character, most of it just doesn't make sense and does not seem like something she would ever do. Ever. Sure, she would be unconventional and brave and loyal. But not this. And Lynley, who seems strangely ghost-like except for his interest in Deirdre Trahair, does worry about her but just sits and waits for much of the novel, instead of calling her out on her complete insanity. And then there are the secondary characters who add to the impression that this novel was written by following a proven recipe: Denton, who appears but whose character remains completely flat, and St. James and Deborah, who make a very pointless appearance that feels like Elizabeth George was required to mention them somewhere in the book, and so they got tucked somewhere into the middle.

So. Still 30% ahead of me, which feel a bit like a chore.
My level of anger at this book is directly proportional to the length of this review, which is the longest I've ever written here - and I haven't even finished the book yet. Ugh.

Edit:
Okay, I forced myself through the last 30%, which could have been edited to generously reduce their length. Much of them seemed to be Barbara Havers noticing that Italians speak Italian, and that she doesn't. And even though there was a quip earlier in the book that Americans tend to just address everyone in English whereas Europeans are much more aware of the existence of foreign languages, Havers does exactly the same. And about two dozen times, what she says is "I really wish you spoke English!" (but not that she herself spoke Italian).
The book goes on, and on, and there isn't enough in the plot to support it. So it was a bit of a drag. Glad it's over. I'm not sure if there will be another part to this series, and I'm not sure if my review of this book will be fresh enough in my mind to avoid it. But I guess I should.

[Shirley Schwartz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is most definitey a story about Barbara Havers and her madcap way of policing. The book takes us from London to Italy and back again, and it is a story about love, betrayal, obsession, kidnapping and murder. The book is extremely long, and to me this was to its detriment. I found it tough slogging through the 700 plus pages, and there were times when I got so frustrated with the way Barbara was behaving that I almost put the book away. But this is Elizabeth George and she is a wonderful author, so I persevered. There were some truly wonderful highlights that kept me going through the frustrating parts. Don't get me wrong. Barbara is by far my favourite character in this wonderful series, but it was difficult to maintain my liking of her as a character with this book. She places her life, her job and her happiness all on the line for the man that she loves, even though she never admits to herself that she loves him. She chooses a particularly unsavoury partner to help her through the maze that her neighbour Azhar has woven in his attempt to hold onto his daughter Haddiyah. And she finds herself in more hot water with her superiors than she has ever been in before. During her efforts to help Azhar, Barbara takes herself off to Italy and this is where the book picks up extra points for me making it four stars instead of three. She meets a wonderful police inspector by the name of Salvatore lo Bianco who is strangely drawn to Barbara even though neither one speaks the other's language. Elizabeth George has drawn a wonderful character in Salvatore, and I can only hope that we will see more of him in future books. Or more specifically, that Barbara will see more of him in future books. As much as I loved the Italian connection, I found it difficult to follow some of it as there is much unexplained Italian in the prose, and it's like trying to figure out a puzzle while determining what is actually being said. I found this a bit difficult. Overall I did enjoy the book. And that is because Ms. George always brings the totally unexpected into her narratives. And she is a marvellous writer. For those reasons the book is well worth the time taken to read it.