"What Lies Hidden" by Elizabeth George: Crime entertainment at its best

Created: 09/30/2022, 18:00

By: Sven Trautwein

Elizabeth George presents the 21st volume to Detective Superintendant Thomas Lynley.

Old wine in new bottles or can the band convince?

My book tip.

Elizabeth George's books have been on the shelves of crime lovers for years.

With "Was im Hiddenen ruh" the 21st volume around Detective Superintendant Thomas Lynley and DS Barbara Havers has been published.

The book weighs almost 800 pages and the topic that Elizabeth George deals with here is anything but easy.

Elizabeth George "What Lies Hidden": About the Book

Elizabeth George – What lies hidden © Goldmann

When the policewoman Teo Bontempi does not wake up from the coma after a serious injury, everything points to an assassination attempt.

Because Teo was investigating mainly in the Nigerian community of North London, Detective Superintendent Thomas Lynley starts looking for the perpetrator right there.

Together with DS Barbara Havers, he delves into a world that seems to have nothing in common with the privileged British middle-class life Lynley has known up to now.

A world in which silence and a lack of understanding hinder their work more than usual.

Especially since Teo himself didn't just have one secret to hide...

gold man

For a long time I loved Elizabeth George's crime novels.

They drew me into an England that I felt to be the typical crime country ever since I read the first books by Agatha Christie.

I loved the setting and the characters of Lynley and Havers.

Unfortunately, I had a different opinion about the films.

Here I find the film adaptations by Jussi Adler-Olsen far more successful.

But eventually Elizabeth George lost me.

Maybe it was the lengthy descriptions, too much private stuff about Havers and Lynley.

I can't say it exactly anymore.

But when the 21st volume was in the starting blocks and the subject of forced marriage and circumcision, which spilled over to Europe through immigrants, was to be dealt with in the book, I wanted to try again.

And was not disappointed.

Elizabeth George: The Novels of Thomas Lynley at a Glance

• "Mine is Vengeance" (1991)

• "God Save This House" (1988)

• "Nobody Cast the First Stone" (1989)

• "On Honor and Conscience" (1990)

• "For Bitter Is Death" (1992)

• "For No One Is Guiltless" (1993)

• "Ashes to Ashes" (1994)

• "In the Face of the Enemy" (1996)

• "Because You Don't Cheat" (1997)

• "Ingratitude is the Father's Reward" (1999)

• "Never Forget" (2001)

• "Those Who Seek the Truth" (2003)

• "Where There Is No Witness" (2005)

• "In the end was the deed" (2007)

• "Yet Sin is Scarlet" (2008)

• "He Who Doomed" (2010)

• "Believe the Lie" (2012)

• "Just an Evil Deed" (2013)

• "Consider What You Do" (2015)

• "Who Deserves Punishment" (2018)

• "What Lies Hidden" (2022)

Around 800 pages is no small matter.

It's not a book that's easy to read.

Not just because of the topic.

But Elizabeth George manages to get to the heart of the matter in terms of content and clearly and to grab me as a reader page after page.

Here I am back in the "old days" of her and reconciled.

Elizabeth George "What Lies Hidden": My Conclusion

Personally, I've been waiting for a new Lynley Havers novel for a long time and I wasn't disappointed.

Elizabeth George shines with her detailed descriptions and the characters that never seem to get older.

I look forward to a 22nd volume.

also read

Jussi Adler-Olsen's "Contempt" on ZDF: How exciting is the book?

German Book Prize 2022: Six novels on the shortlist

Elizabeth George "What Lies in Secret" / Thomas Lynley Volume 21

Translated from the American by Charlotte Breuer ("Something To Hide")

2022, Goldmann, ISBN-13 978-3-442-31620-5

Price: hardcover €26, e-book €25.99, 796 pages (different format) – Order now (promotional link)

Elizabeth George

Meticulous research, precise build-up of suspense and the highest level of psychological sophistication characterize the books by the American Elizabeth George.

Her cases are always detailed portraits of our time and society.

Elizabeth George, who taught creative writing at the university for a long time, now lives in Seattle in the state of Washington, USA.

All of her books are international bestsellers, which not only climb to the top of the German sales charts immediately after publication.

Her Lynley Havers novels were filmed by the BBC and also broadcast on German television with great success.