mystery

Elizabeth George delivers another wonderful edition of her British mystery series.
This time, two characters-Simon Allcourt-James and his red haired, moody wife Deborah-who have always been supporting players, take center stage. The book pays tribute to George's many strengths in character development-any of the characters that she has written about over the years could easily become the focus of a book.
The plot: Cherokee River,a California friend from Deborah's past, shows up on the doorstep of the Allcourt-James' in London. His half-sister, China River (there mother was a child of the 60's), has been arrested in Guernsey on charges of murder. He enlists the help of the Allcourt-James' and their promise to travel to Guernsey.
The murder victim is Guy Brouard, a wealthy hotelier, who escaped the Nazis as a child. He lived with his sister Ruth in a mansion on Guernsey. His life was--and the book is--filled with an assortment of wives, mistresses, children, hangers-on, local friends. Plenty of evidence points to China: however, she is the only one who has no motive.
George's book explores human relationships and dynamics in a way unknown to most mystery authors. The passionate yet challenging marriage of Simon and Deborah--with her numerous insecurities (she can't bear children due to an abortion, her father is his servant)and his embarassment over his crippled legs--is explored in depth. The loyalty that Ruth, the murder victim's sister, feels to her brother-despite her knowledge of his weaknesses--is woven masterfully throughout the book. Several other family relationships are also presented and worked through in the pages.
Of course the mystery itself is great: plenty of twists and turns, a Nazi or two from the past, lots of atmosphere.
I would recommend this book to fans of the mystery genre ( particularly English mystery), fans of Elizabeth George (she's back in form-I, Richard was a disappointment), fans of "english books" (A Place of Hiding is more than just a mystery). I would caution die hard George groupies-her two main characers, Barbara Havers and her partner, the aristocratic and dashing Inspector Thomas Lynley, are not featured in this book. (Lynley makes one or two perfunctory appearances but that's it.) Don't let that stop you-the book is still wonderful without them.

I have to confess I was rather disappointed with "A Place of Hiding." Perhaps it was because Barbara Havers (my favourite character in the series that Elizabeth George has created) did not make even one appearance in this installment; or perhaps it was because the novel seem to completely lack any kind of suspense (esp in comparison to Ms George's first Lynely/Havers outing, "A Great Deliverance" -- a truly superb mystery novel, that); or because it took forever for the novel to unwind and move forward. For whatever reason, "A Place of Hiding" just did not live up to my expectations.

When an old friend (Cherokee Rivers) from Deborah St. James's past turns up at the St. James' doorstep begging for help, Deborah (and Simon, her husband and a forensic scientist) can hardly turn the poor man away. It turns out that Cherokee's sister, China, has been accused of murdering Guy Brouard on an isolated beach at Guersey (an island in the English Channel). Deborah is sure that her old friend is incapable of murder and is all for rushing off to prove her friend's innocence. But Simon is not so sure about the Rivers siblings, or about just what he and Deborah can really accomplish. And when it turns out that there are actually witnesses who saw China following Guy that fateful morning, both Simon and Deborah realize that its not going to be all that easy a task proving China's innocence. Finding a motive for this seemingly motiveless murder would be the first obvious step. And when the St. Jameses discover that Guy was not that well liked and that he had his fair share of enemies (two ex-wives, three estranged children, and a host of people he seems to have let down in one way or another), it looks as if the first steps have been taken to establishing that there may have been other suspects besides China. But Simon cannot let go of the notion that either one or both the Rivers siblings were involved in the murder, and his suspicions are beginning to take a toll on his relationship with Deborah. Will Simon be able to deal with his suspicions about the Rivers siblings (as well as his jealousy about Deborah's bond with them)? Or will his feelings get in the way of the investigation?

The main problem with "A Place of Hiding" (for me anyway) was that it took too long to unwind. The actual motive for the murder was not revealed until a little less than three quarters way through the novel (true there were a few other probable motives strewn about, but the authour, in my opinion, failed to focus on them concretely enough that it was hard to take these 'motives' seriously). And then there was the fact that the book seemed to be absolutely full of characters, whose every action was observed, dissected, picked through and presented for the readers pleasure. And some of these characters weren't even all that essential to the plot! After a while I just started skimming in order to get to the 'meat' of the mystery!!

So, if you like your mystery novels dense, where every shift in shadow and where every shade of a particular character's motivation is described, then "A Place of Hiding" should indeed satisfy. But is you're looking for a clever and suspenseful mystery novel, then you might want to give this latest Elizabeth George offering a miss.

I have read all of Elizabeth George's novels after watching the BBC series based on them. This one was a real dud as far as I was concerned. The plotting was thick and full of dead ends and the story populated by characters who never caught my imagination. And although the author does a pretty good interpretation of ordinary daily life in odd corners of Britain (in this case Guernsey) she still just misses making her characters believably British for me.

Although Barbara Havers is the UK equivalent of "trailer park trash", she is without doubt the most successful of George's regulars and I think she is a truly memorable character. However, when it comes to rich, titled, aristocratic British men, I don't think she comes close to making them believable, sympathetic or attractive.

I have always thought that Deborah and Simon had the potential to be George's most interesting characters because their personal backgrounds was fertile ground ripe for exploitation. However, this time, I just got annoyed. Sorry, but the way Simon is made to handle his disability, the way he blows it all out of proportion, Deborah's unwillingness to be open and honest with a man who adores her and the generally slovenly development of their characters in this story was just terribly, terribly disappointing. Also, I should think any reader who had not read the previous novels would have been wondering just what the hell was going on here with Deborah and Simon - too many allusions to the past makes this novel difficult to "stand alone".

Sorry, I nearly gave up after the first 100 pages. The last 30 pages were a frantic attempt to dig out a believable conclusion (and it was credulous to say the least) and the most interesting character was a council house bully of an elder brother who clearly was nuts!

Oh dear; what a disappointment - can't really recommend this and hope the author can do better next time.