Payment in Blood

By: Elizabeth George

Narrated by: Davina Porter

Length: 14 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's Summary

The producer of a troubled play invites the cast to spend the weekend in his remote Scottish Highlands estate to hash out the problems. When the housemaid finds the playwright murdered in bed, Thomas Lynley and his partner must unmask the villain.

©1992 Susan Elizabeth George (P)1992 Recorded Books

Fair for Elizabeth George

I have read the 7 or 8 most recent Inspector Lynley novels and am a big fan. I went back to this which was an earlier book in the series and found the story only fair and it seemed to drag on, a bit tedious at times.

Sexist, racist and even homophobic!

This book is filled with women who are passive and dependent on their men, with the exception of the female police officer who is described as unattractive and difficult. The men, of course, while imperfect, are self possessed and dominant. Then there’s the Black cop (with his “electric smile”) who is specifically brought in because they need some muscle, and jokes with the White detective that he is going to date his sister (for a laugh). Finally, there’s the gratuitous gay guy at the end who looks like a young, beautiful boy and has a voice that’s “almost feminine.” Seriously, I never write reviews but you need to know what dreck this is before buying it.

Murder Mystery set in an old Scottish Manor House

I enjoyed this mystery. The one thing I wish I had done was jot down the character names and how they were related as I listened to the first couple chapters. It gets really confusing because the suspects are all associated with a theater troupe and many are related. There are many different story lines going on and it was fascinating to see how the author wove them together at the end - surprising Lynley, Havers, and me! There are a lot of twists, intrigue, and several red herrings.

I would definitely recommend reading the first book in this series, "A Great Deliverance," before this one.

The narrator did a great job and I can't wait to read the next in series!

Glad I stuck w it!

I wasn't sure I liked this book at first. But one third of the way I was hooked! I really like the Lynley and Havers partnership. Looking forward to the next book :)

loved it! excellent writing by Elizabeth George!!!

I love the Inspector Lynley series. Elizabeth George always keeps me in suspense. I'm going to listen to all her books!

Payment In Blood

Excellent writing as usual. The relationship between Inspector Lyney and his Sargent Havers, is so interesting, both from the opposite sides of the class system in England. As they solve the mysteries together neither one understanding the other, so lots of interesting interaction as they learn to understand the others world. I enjoy all Elizabeth George mysterys, glad she is such a prolific writer.

Very slow going

Would you try another book from Elizabeth George and/or Davina Porter?

Not sure if I will try another book by this author. I made it to the end of Part 1 then skipped to the end of part 2 so I could see who did it. I found this book to be very slow going and had a difficult time differentiating the various characters.

Would you ever listen to anything by Elizabeth George again?

Not sure if I will listen to another book by George?

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Davina Porter?

I liked the narrator's voice but for me the voices of the different characters was not clear enough for me to make out who was who. Perhaps the problem was there are so many characters that finding voices for all of them would be impossible for any narrator.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

I really liked the plot of this book and kept trying to plod along with it but just couldn't manage. Skipped to the end to see who did it.

Unacceptable ghost noises on recording

My husband is a recording engineer. When I asked him to identify the constant, annoying background noises on this recording of Payment In Blood, he quickly identified it as a poorly-erased earlier recording on the original media. It's not audible unless you listen on headphones/earbuds, but that's how I listen to recorded books. If you listen out loud, it won't concern you. But if not, you will want to avoid this book. It is so all-pervasive that it will drain all enjoyment of the book. I listen all the way, but I couldn't wait for the book to end. Wonder if I can get my money back.

hooked on the series already

I listened to the first book in this series and was undecided whether or not to continue on with it. The first book started slow and took a bit to really get into but I did get into it and it really rolled along when it did get going. But the ratings were good, the reviews were positive and the deciding factor may have been that Davina Porter was the narrator of book #2. So I plunged ahead.

I thoroughly enjoyed this second book in the series from start to finish. I'm sure there are books with this kind of mystery style but the kind of book it is that kept coming to mind is the game Clue. You have an acting troupe holed up in a castle turned resort in northern Scotland and a murder occurs. Everyone in the castle is a suspect and Inspector Lynley is called in to solve the murder mystery. He knows some of the people, he knows of many of the people. Some feathers are ruffled during the investigation but Lynley charges on.

Before it's all said and done the author does a good job of casting doubt on just about everyone that was there. It's fun watching the investigation unfold.

No doubt this time about moving on to book #3. Davina Porter added a lot but she doesn't narrate the next book. Not sure how to interpret this but Recorded Book produced several books in the series and Davina narrated some. Then Random House took over and used one narrator to record the whole series, so there are two versions to some of the books. Having more than one narrator isn't usually optimal but in the end it seems to work itself out.

Ok

There were so many characters and different story lines and such a long book that it was hard to keep track of what was going on. Except that it was not hard to see the main character's prejudice. After a while, it just became noise. But I won't give up on this author.