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Jun 10, 2008

Michael rated it:

It’s been four years since we last caught up with Inspector Thomas Lynley and Sgt. Barbara Havers. Four very long years.

Four years made longer by the fact that at the end of With No One As Witness, Elizabeth George left Lynley and the entire series as a cross-roads. Something big happened at the end of the book that left me stunned at the audacity of George to contemplate it, much less pull it off. And it left me eager for more.

And then we got her last book, What Came More...

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Sep 04, 2011

L rated it:

Isn't Elizabeth George terrific?! I love her books and just wish she's crank them out more regularly and quickly. It isn't as if the woman isn't productive, either. It's just that fans want more, always more. Of course then they wouldn't be the same books, would they?

Here we have DS Lynley mourning the loss of his wife. Lynley takes mourning very, very seriously. He's been wandering the coast of Cornwall for weeks, living rough and not especially well. Just walking. Naturally he fin More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jun 16, 2011

S rated it:

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2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jul 28, 2008

EmmaLee rated it:

I picked this book up because I have watched Thomas Linley on Mystery (on PBS) and they were okay. The last one I had seen was where his pregnant wife (why do they always have to be pregnant) had been killed. They had also just gotten back together after being separated. (All the elements to make it truly tragic.) She was killed by a 12 year old with no motive, just a senseless killing. On TV they had a different storyline about what happened. Anyway, he is dealing with that tragedy by wal More...

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Jun 06, 2008

Kellie rated it:

#15 of the Havers-Lynley series- This phase of the series follows the death of Helen and Lynley has left Scotland Yard and is walking aimlessly along the English coast. A section of coast that is known for surfing. That was an interesting aspect of this book. When Tommy reaches the area of Casvelyn, he finds a body on the cliffs by the shore. He runs up to a cottage hoping someone is there and breaks the window to get in. He finally finds Daidre who helps him find a phone to call the autho More...

2 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jun 14, 2008

Redhedd496 rated it:

Elizabeth George at her very best! You begin to feel that the characters are people you know well, and the dead body, the person who committed the murder, had me fooled to the very end!I can usually figure out "whodunit" quickly, so this was a great surprise. The only problem with any of her books, when you're finished with it, you feel a sense of loss because the story is over, and the characters are now no longer a part of your life. I wish she would write the novels quicker, but the More...

4 comments like (3 people liked it)

Mar 22, 2009

Karin rated it:

Last book in the Thomas Lynly series. If you like a well written and good detective story read one of Elizabeth George's books.

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Jul 18, 2008

Sally rated it:

I was so happy to see another Thomas Lynley novel by Elizabeth George. After the last one that she wrote when she had his wife (Helen) and unborn baby killed, I was afraid that she wouldn't write any additional books about him. This one was really good, and I enjoyed it. I don't think that I enjoyed it as much as her other books about him, because I really loved the relationship he had with his wife. But now I have hope for being able to read about him and his co-hort Barbara Havers in future no More...

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Apr 20, 2010

Joyce rated it:

Elizabeth George is one of my favorite authors. I consider her a master of the English detective/police procedural genre. I ve looked on her writing as an exemplar of near-perfect prose, a joy to read. Her portrayals of a rather large group of main characters in the Thomas Lynley/Barbara Havers series are so evocative that I have a hard time with what are probably perfectly good portrayals of these characters in the TV series based on the books. George s descriptions are simply too sharp t More...

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Mar 04, 2009

Ann rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

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Dec 07, 2008

Diane rated it:

I've read all the Thomas Lynley novels and found them all to be a cut above most detective series, partly because George develops complicated characters who lead complex lives. Careless in Red, despite the somewhat trite title, is more of a sprawling family novel than it is a mystery. Several family sagas are played out, incorporating the intergenerational conflict that binds individual family members to each other and intertwines them for good and ill with other families involved in the story. More...

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Nov 25, 2008

Julie rated it:

Okay, I think we’ve got the train back on track. We have Lynley, we have Havers. Whew. This should go without saying, but after the dreck that was "What Came Before He Shot Her", you cannot take these things for granted.

Other than the presence of Lynley and Havers, though, I’m not that crazy about this installment. I didn’t like any of the other (secondary) characters, and actively disliked most of them. The few that I did like eventually ended up annoying me too.. An More...

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Jun 28, 2011

mark rated it:

Sixty-eight year old “Grandie,” caretaker of Tammy, 17 years old and pious, a quote typically obstinate female teenager says: “Love’s a bitch of a thing,” to his drinking pal, 70 year old itinerate surfing guru Jago Reeth, who responds with, “It’s a killer, that.” As they quaff beers in the local pub. Fifty-eight year old female Detective Inspector Bea Hannorford ponders the three primary motives for murder 1) sex 2) power 3) money i/r/t the murder of 18 year old Santo Kerne, a quote typically o More...

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Aug 08, 2010

Annabelle rated it:

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May 31, 2010

Kathleen added it

Careless in Red, by Elizabeth George, B-plus, produced by Harper Collins, This is the 14th book, I believe in the Lynley series. In this one, Inspector Superintendent Lynley resigns his position as superintendent of Scotland Yard because he cannot come out of the depression he is in following the senseless murder of his wife, Helen. Lynley has been walking the Cornish coast for 43 days. He is withdrawn, doesn’t eat much, hasn’t showered or changed clothes in a long time, and looks nothing lik More...

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Mar 01, 2010

KarenC rated it:

After What Came Before He Shot Her this is a refreshing return to the Lynley/Havers series. While George's two previous books, What Came Before He Shot Her and No one as Witness present opposite sides of the same event, What Came Before He Shot Her was really a non-Lynley story and I missed the English detective partnership. This one seemed to take a while to develop and to get Lynley back in the game, even if reluctantly. Although logical in terms of standard police work it seemed very strange More...

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Jun 27, 2009

Vivisection rated it:

There are books meant to be read pool/beach side in the hot sun with sweat dripping down your face, one hand shielding your eyes from the sun all the while angling your book so that you may read it. They don't have complicated plots--Janet Evanovich comes to mind. As does any bodice ripper romance. Light, fluffy books that don't require much thought are for summer waterside recreation.

There are also books to be read on the plane. See above considerations.

800 page no More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Jun 02, 2009

Rod rated it:

The cover of this book tells us that ‘Inspector Lynley Is Back’. Regular readers will know what this means though I didn’t know he’d gone away.

The title is unusually good, but I can’t say why without giving away too much of the plot. It refers to a femme fatale by the name of Dellen, who likes to wear red. The ‘careless’ goes straight to the heart of the matter.

As crime writing goes, this has a lot going for it. First of all, and though there is a death, it occurs before More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 15, 2010

Mrsgaskell rated it:

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Jan 30, 2011

Bob rated it:

My second Elizabeth George and sequence wise just earlier than my first one. Not a problem though, this one like the first was long at 623 pages, with many characters involved in the telling. There was a mystery as Inspector Linley has left the Yard following the killing of his wife and embarked on a long solitary walk along the Cornish coast trail. At one point he discovers the body of a young man at the foot of the cliff he was climbing, having no phone he finds a lonely cottage and with no More...

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May 09, 2010

Rebecca rated it:

I'll admit it: I'm glad Helen is dead. I found her insufferable as a character and Thomas Lynley's attraction to her inexplicable. Killing her off was the best thing that could happen for this series.

Now Thomas is grieving for her, and has left his life and work behind to walk the coast. Naturally, he stumbles on a corpse and despite his intent to stay away is drawn into the investigation. In addition to his partner Barbara Havers (who seems to be on excellent terms these days with More...

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Jun 13, 2009

Lise rated it:

Like many of her fans here, I find that I can't read many Elizabeth George books one after another. She has a habit of torturing her main characters, putting them through one crisis after another at a mind numbing pace for weeks/months/years at a time (mind numbing within continuity, that is).

In "Careless in Red", Lynley has finally broken under the strain of such events, or rather, of the final ones, the shooting and later death of his wife and unborn son. The book is th More...

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Jan 21, 2012

Christina rated it:

Long live DS Barbara Havers!!!

I've read a few of the Inspector Lynley series by this time. No use covering old ground in this review. Hence, these drippings of opinion are dedicated to the disheveled delight of a detective. She has a hairstyle no doubt maintained by a pair of clothing shears kept in her medicine cabinet, a body best described as one that itself will probably be grateful when it gives out, and eating habits that would make junk-foodies cringe [I restate from a pr More...

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May 19, 2009

Khaya rated it:

Disappointing. For starters, the book was way too long and the build-up was extremely slow. Elizabeth George has enjoyed a successful career, with good reason mostly, and she seems to have reached the point where people are afraid to edit her. It happens to a lot of authors, and it's unfortunate. Even the best authors need editors, especially after they've started believing their own hype.

There were also too many confusing subplots. I kept forgetting which pairs were brother and More...

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Jul 18, 2011

Lauren rated it:

If this were a meal, I’d say it wasn’t particularly satisfying. It’s as if we kept nibbling around the edges of the meaty story, with the server placing a steaming pile of appetizers in front of us, just to snatch it away after a few bites, replacing it with a salad, snatching it away, and rotating all the different courses. We get bits and pieces of everything, getting to know everyone and everything in the village of Casvelyn, but not getting to spend enough time with the cold and greasy main More...

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May 23, 2009

Alarra rated it:

In the aftermath of his wife's terrible death (which is the subject of the previous two books in the Lynley series), Thomas takes a walk along a deserted coastal path to try and escape everything in his life, but when he comes across a dead climber along a section of cliff, he is drawn back into police investigations, and into human contact once more.

I've never believed in the character of Helen, and as callous as it sounds, I'm kind of glad that she's dead, and giving greater compl More...

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Sep 18, 2009

Karen rated it:

Being a huge fan of Elizabeth George since A Great Deliverance, I feel a tad let down by Careless in Red. It's almost as if she set out to confound us with excessive sub-plots, bizarre character names and arcane obsessions, i.e. surfing in the U K. I believe she was at her writing/plotting acme during With No One As Witness, arcing into the subsequent, not so typical George book What Came Before He Shot Her, which was a brilliant realization of the opposite ends of the same story as Witness, or More...

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Oct 28, 2009

Mary Lou rated it:

Acting Supt Thomas Lynley wanders the coast of England looking for heartache relief after his pregnant wife is killed by a child with a gun. Instead he finds a teenager dead at the base of a cliff. Includes many of the inhabitants of the surfing town (out of season) as well as people from 30 yrs prior. Characters include a sex-crazed mother & son, 2 people with aliases & a misunderstood girl who wants to be a contemplative nun.
Not a humorous book but 2 bits: 1) Teenage boy with no o More...

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Jun 11, 2010

Ollie rated it:

I don't get it: this mammoth murder mystery (over 700 pages) was read by high profile editors in America and Britain, husbands, best friends, personal assistants, god knows who else, and not a single one of them pointed out to Elizabeth George that a major plot point was missing. And it's not even a minor detail that can be written off: it's a plot point that should explain how the killer executed a particular move which would allow them to commit the crime.

George has been pumping More...

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Dec 29, 2010

Joan rated it:

Overall a better-than-average read. This book's weaknesses, for me, were inborn in the fact that is modern British fiction. In my experience, modern British fiction is universally irritating in two ways: The TONE is flippant, irreverant, and haughty, which is a definite obstacle for me to overcome to enjoy the book. Also, the apparently pervasive class-consciousness of the British culture permeates the story and affects all the characters' relationships to a distracting degree. In addition to More...

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