The Punishment She Deserves (Inspector Lynley Series #20)

by Elizabeth George

Overview

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers and Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley are forced to confront the past as they try to solve a crime that threatens to tear apart the very fabric of a quiet, historic medieval town in England

The cozy, bucolic town of Ludlow is stunned when one of its most revered and respected citizens—Ian Druitt, the local deacon—is accused of a serious crime. Then, while in police custody, Ian is found dead. Did he kill himself? Or was he murdered?

When Barbara Havers is sent to Ludlow to investigate the chain of events that led to Ian's death, all the evidence points to suicide. But Barbara can't shake the feeling that she's missing something. She decides to take a closer look at the seemingly ordinary inhabitants of Ludlow—mainly elderly retirees and college students—and discovers that almost everyone in town has something to hide.

A masterful work of suspense, The Punishment She Deserves sets Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers and Inspector Thomas Lynley against one of their most intricate cases. Fans of the longtime series will love the many characters from Elizabeth George's previous novels who join Lynley and Havers, and readers new to the series will quickly see why she is one of the most popular and critically acclaimed writers of our time. Both a page-turner and a deeply complex story about the lies we tell, the lies we believe, and the redemption we need, this novel will be remembered as one of George's best.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780451467867
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	03/19/2019
Series:	Inspector Lynley Series , #20
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	704
Sales rank:	132,109
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.60(d)

About the Author

Elizabeth George is the New York Times bestselling author of twenty psychological suspense novels, four young adult novels, one book of nonfiction, and two short-story collections. Her work has been honored with the Anthony and Agatha awards, two Edgar nominations, and both France's and Germany's first prize for crime fiction, as well as several other prestigious prizes. She lives in Washington State.

Hometown:

Seattle, Washington

Date of Birth:

February 26, 1949

Place of Birth:

Warren, Ohio

Education:

A.A. Foothill Community College, 1969; B.A. University of California, Riverside, 1970; M.S. California State University

Website:

http://www.elizabethgeorgeonline.com

Read an Excerpt

4 MAY
(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "The Punishment She Deserves"
by .
Copyright © 2019 Elizabeth George.
Excerpted by permission of Penguin Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Reading Group Guide

1. Why do you think the novel begins from Gaz Ruddock’s point of view? What effect does this have on how we perceive Gaz throughout the book?

2. Discuss the setting of this novel. What is the significance of the majority of the book being set in Ludlow, a place in which young and old, the medieval and the modern world, seem to intersect?

3. In what ways do Yasmina and Clover mirror each other in their approach to parenting?

4. The Punishment She Deserves is essentially set in motion by Ian Druitt’s father, who doesn’t believe that his son Ian would kill himself. Examine the way that various decisions—both large and small—made by parents profoundly influence the decisions of their children within this novel.

5. As the question above addresses, many of the characters within the novel are shaped by the actions of their parents. To what degree do you hold the characters accountable for their actions, and to what degree do you attribute their behavior to their parents?

6. Do you agree with Barbara Havers’s decision to cover for Isabelle Ardery?

7. What were some of the red herrings in the novel? Were there characters you suspected before the truth was unveiled?

8. Describe the author’s writing style. Why do you think the author switches between different perspectives and provides such rich, detailed descriptions of setting?

9. How do the two epigraphs resonate with the novel?

10. Who could the “she” in the title—The Punishment She Deserves—refer to?

Editorial Reviews

Praise for The Punishment She Deserves
 
“Rich with descriptive detail and emotional nuance. Several alternating plot threads unspool at length, all of which weave tightly together with pleasing inevitability. . . . What has been said before deserves repeating: From suspense to social commentary, from violence to pathos, from villainy to possible redemption, Ms. George can do it all, with style.”
—Wall Street Journal

“The Punishment She Deserves contains all the trademarks that have made George a grandee of the genre: an intricate and thoughtful plot (this one includes various forms of addiction and numerous examples of misguided parenting), a multiplicity of carefully conceived and richly executed characters and the continuing evolution of Lynley’s and Havers’ personas. No George novel—and especially not this effort—is one through which the reader should sprint. Instead, take time to reflect on the issues George raises—and to savor her genius.”
—The Richmond Times-Dispatch
 
“Meaty, psychologically probing . . . Lynley becomes, for a significant portion of the narrative, a kind of peripheral player, yielding the investigative center stage to his colleague, Detective Sgt. Barbara Havers. This is a canny and risky move on George’s part, and she makes it work through building Havers into a character who’s fascinating in large part for how different she is from Lynley; their personal contrasts fuel the novel.”
—The Christian Science Monitor

“In . . . George’s skillful telling, Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers (working class, rumpled and smart) takes the lead probing death in a medieval market town; her boss, Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley (aristocratic, cultured and smart), takes a back seat.”
—The Seattle Times (naming The Punishment She Deserves one of 2018’s best thrillers)
 
“Elizabeth George knows how to keep a reader turning the pages of her books. . . . George takes her time to delve into the complexities of community, relationship and truth, all while keeping the suspense turned up enough to keep the story in motion. Few mystery writers create a sense of place in the excellent way that George does her. Her characters, fully realized and multi-dimensional, move in the world she builds in a way that feels autonomous and true. Readers of the series and newcomers to George’s work alike will be thrilled with this impeccably crafted novel.”
—The Citizen-Times

“Elizabeth George has created journeys for Havers and Lynley before and this, yet again, falls among the ‘must reads’ in the suspense world. For new readers getting onboard and for those who have loved these characters for a while now, this book is one you do not want to miss.”
—Suspense Magazine

“Bold, invigorating, and entertaining . . . Readers coming to George for the first time will be just as enthralled and satisfied as longtime fans of the immensely rewarding series.”
—Mystery Scene Magazine

“George is an ascended master of the artfully tangled plot, elaborate without being overly busy; everyone who enters into the picture plays a part . . . Long but rewarding: trademark George, with elements of the classic procedural nicely joined to today’s headlines. Fans won’t be disappointed.”
—Kirkus
 
“Bolstered by George’s polished prose, the twentieth Lynley mystery moves briskly along, showing the author at the peak of her powers.”
—Booklist (starred review)

“George tackles a number of emotionally charged social issues with sensitivity and grace. Exquisitely rendered characters and a powerful sense of place enhance the meticulously crafted mystery, which satisfies as a standalone while furthering the series arc.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

From the Publisher

In his 1977 novel Unknown Man #89, Elmore Leonard created one of fiction's most memorable alcoholics. "She was drunk -- two o'clock in the afternoon -- but didn't show it, sitting on the bar stool with her denim legs crossed." We meet Denise Leary when she is on her "fourth double Sauterne," and "when the level was two-thirds of the way down the glass she'd be thinking of the next one." After that, each flawless page seems to reek of booze and desperation: "Vodka sitting on the toilet tank while you took a shower, something to hold you till the bars open at seven."

These are the sorts of scenes Leonard fans take for granted. They are not, however, what you expect from Elizabeth George, whose Inspector Lynley series is as firmly rooted in the English mystery tradition as Lynley is in the British aristocracy. Yet here is Lynley's boss, Isabelle Ardery, directing a tricky investigation in The Punishment She Deserves. "Yes, vodka and tonic would be just fine, she decided. It would sit on top of the earlier vodka, the wine, and the brandy, but these had already moved nicely though her system . . . She experienced a moment of dizziness. On her feet too quickly . . . Must watch that." For a moment we could be across the Atlantic, in a very different sort of crime novel. And Ardery's stumble is merely a prelude. By the time The Punishment She Deserves reaches its satisfying conclusion, the detective chief superintendent's descent will be complete. "Her head was thundering and her limbs were quaking . . . When she took up the vodka, her reason for doing so was clear. She needed it to soothe the worries . . . She drank from the bottle another time and she told herself that that was it. That was all she would have."

The darkness here may be familiar. George's mystery novels have always ventured into the psychological shadows, prompting early comparisons with the fiction of P. D. James and Ruth Rendell. But this portrait of Ardery in extremis is perhaps George's finest, and with it she expertly tightens her novel's inexorable grip, making the skid into drunkenness as suspenseful as the discovery of murder. For murder is, of course, the chief concern of Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley and Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers, the irresistible team that first appeared thirty years earlier in A Great Deliverance. Back then each detective was somewhat crudely drawn -- Lynley blond and lordly, Havers squat and bolshie -- and George's murder mystery was far- fetched. But as the Lynley series has developed, both George's plots and her psychological renderings have acquired greater subtlety and precision. The Punishment She Deserves, for example, may have one subplot too many, but the novel's elegant structure is airtight, and no character, however tangential, seems extraneous. What's more, Havers, the series stalwart, is at her dogged, irreverent best -- particularly when frustrated. "The one thing Barbara knew for certain at the end of her first hour with Ian Druitt's mobile phone," George writes, "was that the UK would have fallen to Nazi Germany had she been sent to do anything at Bletchley Park." Havers fans, of course, know better.

False leads notwithstanding, the plot is admirably plain. In a small Shropshire town, Ian Druitt, an alleged pedophile, has apparently hanged himself while in police custody. Under pressure from Druitt's father, a politically influential brewery owner who suspects murder, Scotland Yard sends DCS Isabelle Ardery and DS Havers to reexamine the case. And the unlikely pairing is deliberate. Havers, routinely insubordinate, is being tested by superior officers who intend her to fail. "Don't take this lightly, Barbara," Lynley warns her, "you're going to need to play by every rule." The rule of loyalty above all, Havers realizes when her boss starts to slide. "There had been something not right with Ardery earlier," she notices, "it was what her right hand did when she took the map Barbara handed to her. It was how she dropped the right hand to her side when she couldn't stop its trembling." Following an attempted police cover-up, Lynley takes Ardery's place alongside Havers, but Ardery at a distance still holds our attention even as the intrigue thickens and a murder suspect emerges.

As always, George's cunning revelations are deftly staged. "Lynley was watching her, his expression frankly appraising," we read of one pivotal encounter. "There was a tight little silence among them. In it, a car drove by, that irritating rap music pounding from its open window." In quiet scenes such as this one and in alternating chapters that tantalizingly shift the point of view, George exposes not only the sordid truth behind Druitt's death but also the frailty that deepens each of her characters, even the magisterial Lynley. "Did people actually need each other at all?" he wonders midway through the case. "He couldn't answer that question, so he didn't try."

Anna Mundow, a longtime contributor to The Irish Times and The Boston Globe, has written for The Guardian, The Washington Post, and The New York Times, among other publications.

Reviewer: Anna Mundow

The Barnes & Noble Review

★ 02/19/2018
Bestseller George’s stunning 20th Thomas Lynley novel (after 2015’s A Banquet of Consequences) finds the detective inspector running things at New Scotland Yard in London while his partner, Det. Sgt. Barbara Havers, and his boss, Det. Chief Supt. Isabelle Ardery, investigate allegations of police malfeasance in Ludlow, England. Six weeks earlier, community support officer Gary Ruddock arrested Ian Druitt on suspicion of child molestation. Ruddock then brought Druitt to the unmanned Ludlow police station, where Druitt hanged himself. The Independent Police Complaints Commission cleared Ruddock of criminal wrongdoing, but Druitt’s influential father wants a second opinion or he’ll sue. To Ardery, the review is a formality; Havers, however, believes that Druitt was murdered and asks to reopen the case. When Ardery refuses, Havers consults Lynley, who can’t resist getting involved. George tackles a number of emotionally charged social issues with sensitivity and grace. Exquisitely rendered characters and a powerful sense of place enhance the meticulously crafted mystery, which satisfies as a standalone while furthering the series arc. Author tour. Agent: Robert Gottlieb, Trident Media Group. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

10/15/2017
No. 1 New York Times best-selling George returns with the next mystery featuring DI Thomas Lynley and his partner DS Barbara Havers, who's in the lead here. Approached by a Member of Parliament with a request to investigate the supposed suicide of a constituent's son, New Scotland Yard's assistant commissioner sees an opportunity to stick Havers with an impossible case and thence get rid of her. (He's not a fan.) George's last title was in 2015, so folks will be clamoring.

Library Journal

Let’s face it, Simon Vance is a rock star. His performance of this complex and multifaceted murder mystery is vivid and perfectly paced. There are no fewer than four disastrous mother-child snarls in the mix here, as well as all manner of British class and ethnic variations among investigators, suspects, and bystanders, and Vance is simply at home with all of it. Fans of Elizabeth George’s series will be glad to be reunited with aristocratic Detective Lynley and Sgt. Havers, who famously dresses like a slob and can’t follow orders—a good thing, when the orders would have caused her to dismiss a murder as a suicide. That Havers has also taken up tap dancing is less believable, but funny. A clever puzzle, brilliantly read. B.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award, 2019 Audies Finalist © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine

MARCH 2018 - AudioFile

2018-02-20
More mayhem most British from practiced mysterian George (A Blanket of Consequences, 2015, etc.): the 20th Inspector Lynley novel.The "she" of the title is a floating pronoun: It could refer to a victim or to DS Barbara Havers, who has been sent up to A.E. Housman country from New Scotland Yard to investigate a murder most foul. Or is it a suicide most foul? In any event, the unfortunate demise while in police custody of Ian Druitt, a respected deacon of the Church of England lately suspected of pedophilia, turns out to be grounded in plenty of motive, whether deserved or a smoke screen for another crime. Enter Detective Chief Superintendent Isabelle Ardery, a woman hardened by a horrid divorce and too-liberal application of alcohol to her many problems, for when it turns out that Druitt is well-connected and an MP has come calling for favors, Assistant Commissioner Sir David Hillier, a Yard honcho with a nose for sniffing out political and personal opportunity, sends not Inspector Lynley but Ardery to help Havers with the case, thus putting another "she" in line for punishment. George is an ascended master of the artfully tangled plot, elaborate without being overly busy; everyone who enters into the picture plays a part. Lynley is rather far afield at first, as Havers takes the lead—and given that Lynley was first introduced in 1988, 30 years ago, he's coming up on retirement age anyway. But once Ardery turns out to be trouble, enticing Havers to chug down "some kind of vodka in a glass the size of my mum's Easter bonnet" and neglecting some key evidence in the ugly case, Lynley is back on the scene, and not a minute too soon. George, though American, is at home in the all mod cons world of suburban England, and she weaves many topics into her pages, from alcoholism and binge drinking to immigration, rave culture, nationalism, town versus gown, and police politics. Oh, and there's no shortage of suspects, either.Long but rewarding: trademark George, with elements of the classic procedural nicely joined to today's headlines. Fans won't be disappointed.

Kirkus Reviews