With No One as Witness

By: Elizabeth George

Narrated by: Charles Keating

Length: 10 hrs and 15 mins

Publisher's summary

In With No One as Witness, her 13th novel, Elizabeth George has crafted an intricate and absorbing story sure to enthrall her listeners. Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley, along with his longtime partner, the fiery Barbara Havers, and newly promoted Detective Sergeant Winston Nkata, is back and on the hunt for a sinister killer.  

When an adolescent boy's nude body is found mutilated and artfully arranged on the top of a tomb, it takes no large leap for the police to recognize this as the work of a serial killer. This is the fourth victim in three months, but the first to be white.

Hoping to avoid charges of institutionalized racism in its failure to pursue the earlier crimes to their conclusion, New Scotland Yard hands the case over to Lynley and his colleagues. The killer is a psychopath who does not intend to be stopped. Worse, a devastating tragedy within the police ranks causes them to fumble in their pursuit of him.

With a surprise ending that will shock listeners to the core, With No One as Witness is full of the mesmerizing action and psychological intrigue that are the hallmarks of Elizabeth George's work and continue to prove that she is "a master of the English mystery" (New York Times).

©2005 Elizabeth George (P)2005 HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.

Critic reviews

"This is a riveting installment in a superb series - far more than just plain good." (Booklist)

"Crime fans will find plenty of forensic minutiae and details of police bureaucracy and politics, but it's characterization at which George really excels.... This is an outstanding and explosive addition to a popular series." (Publishers Weekly) 

BEWARE - IT IS ABRIDGED!

I wish I had read the description more carefully. I just wasted a purchase.
And they won't let me give it zero stars.

ABRIDGED, ABRIDGED, ABRIDGED

I am SO disappointed in Audible. I did not realize this was abridged; what's the point? I'm almost through it and there's nothing of the character development that's supposed to be here.

Ripped off

Like other reviewers, I was extremely disappointed when I realized that this was an abridged version of this work (yes, I should have noted this before I made the purchase but didn't). Whereas certain books can be read/listened to in abridged format without loss of content, because of the manner in which Ms. George develops her characters, this is not one of them. My hope is that Audible or some other service will see fit to issue an unabridged version of this book. In the meantime, I will wait (or read the book) rather than listen to the abridged work.

A BIZARRE BIT OF RACISM.......

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

If Elizabeth George understood race relations and the cultures of people of color better.

What was most disappointing about Elizabeth George’s story?

Ms. George attempts to write about the socio-economic problems of black people yet she did absolutely no research on the subject. I would have given her a break if she was a British author. England has a whole different take and history on racism than America. But Eluxabeth George was born, raised, educated and still resides in the United States! She had to have run into a black person at some point in her 66 years on Earth yet she wrote this story like she grew up under a rock in Antarctica! In all of her other books she droned on and on about black DS Winston Ncata's race as if we didn't get it the first time that she instroduces the character in each book. She has to remind us that he's black when it has nothing to do with the storyline or his excellent police work. In this book, we see that she definitely has an issue with people of color. I can't tell if it comes from being ignorant or from getting her education about black people from watching way too much "Oprah"!!!George keeps dipping in areas where she lacks any knowledge. She seems to think by referring to a person's skin color, the reader will accept as fact the ignorant racial references that she makes. She did the same thing with a major Pakistani character in her most recent Inspector Henley book "Just One Evil Act" where we read more about the skin color of "that dirty Paki" than the fact that he is a highly educated science professor.

What didn’t you like about Charles Keating’s performance?

The narrator is too old for this story, especially as the voice of Inspector Lynley. Charles Keating sounds like a grumpy working class 70 year-old rather than an aristocratic 30-something peer of the Realm. He is unable to do female voices nor does he exhibit the requisite range of dialects and accents expected in a George audiobook.

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

This could have been an interesting novel about pedophiles, psychosexual serial killers, and organizations which encourage and support sex between grown men and underage boys - IF you like that sort of thing. However, George went way rogue in juxtaposing that storyline with the murder of Inspector Lynley's pregnant wife (no spoiler since George drags out that tragic bit in every book, on every chapter!). Even then, the plot would have unfolded nicely if not for the confusing addition of the racial issues. Does it really matter if the trigger of a gun is pulled by a white person or a cheetah? Dead is dead!

Any additional comments?

This book is the 2nd part of an overdone trilology about the murder of Lynley's wife. The next one is "What Came Before He Shot Her", a kind of prequel giving us the history of the killer. The problem with this whole scenario is that George has inexplicably chosen to use a black person as the killer. Plus she insists on using the term "mixed race" which denotes.....WHAT?!? I have no idea and I'm black! We aren't "mixed race" any more than any other people are. We might be "multi-racial" yet isn't most of America and England? George sets herself out to be an authority on black people, in this case Euro-Brits but she barely has any concrete knowledge about the black AMERICANS in her country much less the even more complex and less public history of Africans and West Indians who have lived in Britain for as long as we have lived here, both enslaved and free, and in a climate of hostile racism. George writes great mystery novels and has likable characters in Inspector Lynley, his partner DS Barbara Havers and even DS Winston Ncata (when she's not treating him like "Mandingo"!). But, in this book and the one which comes next, she is way out of her depth. She has done a remarkable job of creating characters who live in England and work at New Scotland Yard, particularly since she is not a British writer nor does she live in England. However, her attempt to portray a race of people she knows very little about is way off the mark. I find it to be insulting in the extreme. While she didn't have to make a black family her "BFFs", she could at least put in some due diligence on the subject matter through research - and, maybe, venturing out of her neighborhood!

In addition, she gets all "preachy-preachy" on the social and economic issues of black people and the ills of today's youth! She's 66, already! How can she even relate to the current generation, much less understand what brought them to accepting profanity, casual sex, no work ethic, a loss of morals or personal responsibility.......ooooops! All of the things that her parents railed against when she was young! I can say this because I am the same age as Barbara George. I, too, was young once, thinking that my generation had all of the answers that my "square" parents lacked. However, at no time was Elizabeth George BLACK (or what she likes to call "mixed race") so she should have done her homework! Ask of herself, FIRST AND FOREMOST - Who created "mixed race" people? I know that MY female ancestors didn't "volunteer" to water down their majestic African warrior blood through rape and oppression.

Alright, Audible Playa-Haters, go on and mark this review as "Not Helpful". But I wish someone had given me this same heads up. I could have saved a credit!!!! 😡

DISSAPOINTED

ALTHOUGH I LIKE ELIZABETH GEORGE AND HER CHARACTER SUPERINTENDANT LINLEY I FOUND THIS BOOK VERY DISSAPOINTING AND BORING. I DIDN'T REALIZE THAT IT WAS ABRIDGED AND THEREFORE MUCH OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PLOT AND CHARACTERS WAS MISSING. I WOULD NOT WASTE MY TIME ON THIS IF I HAD ANOTHER CHANCE.

anne

I love this series, but who would have contracted a reader who makes Lindley sound like an old slightly crotchety man. Yuk. He is supposed to be young cultured and vital.

So great to see a new Elizabeth George!

I was so glad to see a new Elizabeth George title on Audible! This is one of her best, in my opinion. Those who follow the series will be familiar with the mix of the mystery that faces the detectives and their personal lives, and this one is no exception. It contains a key, life-altering event for Detective Lynley.

Book Good, Narrator not appropriate

I love the Linley series but was disappointed with this narrator - too old to represent Linley. I alsp prefer reading without music...they're distracting.

Music detracts.

Story good. Very sad. The horrible loud discordant music between chapters is jarring. Too bad they didn't leave that out.

crazy annoying music

I thought the plot was exceptional but very tragic. I was listening to it in the car on a long trip and had to take long breaks from the creepy killer and the sadness. I had a very difficult time adjusting the volune loud enough to hear the narrator. He drops his voice so low at the end of sentences that often all I could hear were consonants . I prefer the female narrator of the previous book in the series. And oh, the music !! loud, unrelated to the tone of the book, intrusive and just generally awful. It served no purpose whatsoever.