Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Shelf Control: Elizabeth George's Inspector Thomas Lynley Series

I have seen this meme quite a bit this year and decided it might be a fun way to give attention to some of the books marinating on my shelves, patiently waiting their turn to be read. I make no promises that it will be soon. My TBR collection is . . . well, let's just say, quite large. And that's an understatement.

Shelf Control hosted by Lisa of Bookshelf Fantasies "is all about the books we want to read — and already own! Consider this a variation of a Wishing & Waiting post… but looking at books already available sitting right there on our shelves and e-readers."

This mystery series features Detective Inspector Thomas "Tommy" Lynley, 8th Earl of Asherton, and Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers of New Scotland Yard. I believe the series is up to 19 books, but I only have 14 of them, along with a short story collection that includes one story featuring Inspector Lynley. There are two many books to provide a synopsis of each one, but I imagine just knowing who the main players are and the setting gives you an idea of the type of books these are.

 A Great Deliverance (1988; 413 pgs)
Payment in Blood (1989; 374 pgs)
Well-Schooled in Murder (1990; 414 pgs)
A Suitable Vengeance (1991; 449 pgs)
For the Sake of Elena (1992; 442 pgs)
Missing Joseph (1993; 567 pgs)
Playing for the Ashes (1994; 678 pgs)
The Presence of the Enemy (1996; 625 pgs)
Deception on His Mind (1996; 716 pgs)
In the Pursuit of the Proper Sinner (1999; 718 pgs)
A Traitor To Memory (2001; 1009 pgs )
A Place of Hiding (2003; 777 pgs)

How I got them: Years ago, I discovered E-Bay and the fact that I could buy boxes of used books at a irresistible rate. I bid on a box of twelve used books in Elizabeth George's Inspector Lynley's series, and one short story collection (The Evidence Exposed), and won.

When I got it: *hangs head in embarrassment* September of 2004. (I later purchased No One As My Witness in March of 2006 from Barnes and Noble and a signed copy of This Body of Death at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books in 2010, which is kind of silly in retrospect given I had only read one f the other books in the series. This was back in my must-have-every-possible-book-in-the-series-before-reading phase.)

Why I want to read them: A pen pal recommended the series to me, and I have heard wonderful things about the books since then. I have actually read one of Elizabeth George's books (For the Sake of Elena--although another copy; not the one that came in this box), which I enjoyed quite a bit. I love mysteries, and really do want to read this series someday. It's one of the reasons all these books survived my massive book purging when we moved five years ago and the second one last year. Of course, pulling the books off my shelf for the photos for the post, I nearly dove right into the first one because, even after all these years, the series sounds so good.

The Evidence Exposed (1999, 216 pgs)

Have you read these books? If so, what did you think? Should I move them up in my TBR pile?


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20 comments:

  1. I never read this author, but I love a good mystery, and currently have a "thing" for European detectives.

    This meme would put me to shame also! Not that I have many print books left to read since we moved and I donated most of them, but on my Paperwhite I have a whole bunch of random titles, dating back several years now. I can't resist if an author or title I've read about goes on sale, but then I move on to the next "shiny" book. Sad state of affairs, lol.

    Thanks for sharing-- I'll look this author up now.

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    1. Rita - I remember the one book I read by this author being atmospheric and really good. If you do give George a try, I hope you enjoy her work!

      I thought I had lost my old TBR list, but I found a copy that lists the actual dates I bought many of my TBR books. I stopped updating it at some point--whether because of a computer crash or something else, I don't remember. Regardless, I'm not sure whether knowing how long some of the books have been on my TBR shelf is good or not. LOL

      I'm sure my Kindle is full of books I have forgotten about. :-)

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  2. Oooooh these sound good. I did the same as you when I bought the collection of Inspector Morse books by Colin Dexter. Unfortunately I've not enjoyed the couple I've read, bit of a waste of money from me!! Hope you get around to these soon, I'm tempted to add them to my ever growing TBR pile!!

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    1. Rachel - Isn't that the worst? You spend all that money on the series and then you find you don't care for it. That's happened to me as well. I try not to do that now, but sometimes it's hard to resist.

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  3. I started reading these before blogging, from a staffroom friend. I got up to about book 8 or 9 and then I started blogging and...
    I really liked the books! However, they took me a long time to read each one. I'm usually a fast reader, but each would take me so long - the language and vocabulary (more words I've never heard of than any author!) seemed to slow me down. Now, having said that, they were very, very good. I loved the characters, the back stories, the classes. But once I started blogging, committing to read a book that might take a month was just not in the cards!

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    1. Elizabeth - I think that is one of the reasons I put off reading them--the sizes of the books. One of them is over 1000 pages! And now that I'm blogging, longer books do tend to get passed over more easily than is probably fair.

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  4. I've never read those, but I like mysteries! I'd give 'em a whirl.

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    1. Jean - I hope you like the series if you do try them. I really liked For the Sake of Elena.

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  5. I read Elizabeth George ages ago and really enjoyed them though it did head towards more emotions than I usually like which isn't really saying all that much. I really should get back to the series or at least revisit the early ones because it's been years. I hope you read them soon and enjoy them! I love this meme!

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    1. Katherine - I am glad to hear you enjoyed them. I have a renewed interest in them, having pulled them off my shelf for this post. So maybe it will be soon. At least for the first book in the series. :-)

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  6. I had no idea the Inspector Lynley series was so long-running, or that the main character is an earl! I've had the first book on my TBR list forever (apparently I didn't look at the publication date and have forgotten the synopsis!) and I hope to ONE DAY finally start the series. I'm pretty proud of myself, though -- I'm finally making progress on my must-read-in-2016 list (i.e. books I REALLY want to read that have been on my TBR list for a while). Though... I've failed pretty terribly at one of my other goals, read more of my own books!

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    1. Lindsay - It's great that you are making good progress on you must-read-in-2016 list! I really need to devote my time to my own books too. :-S I have so many good ones!

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  7. I've heard about these books, but have never read any. Quite a good choice!! I also have made some great purchases of boxes of books on Ebay in the past -- it's always such fun to find a treasure.

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    1. Lisa - It is! I love getting books in the mail. Hopefully I will make time to read these sooner than later.

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  8. I don't think I've read anything by this author. And I love the idea of this meme! :)

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    1. Melody - I enjoyed the one book by her I read and think I will like the others too. I hope so, anyway. :-)

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  9. You know, I had a meme similar to this one on my YA blog, a few years ago. I never got many comments on it, though, so I stopped posting it. This one looks really good, because of the questions posed about when and how one acquired the book(s), as well as why one wants to read it(them). So I might very well start joining in! Let's see how it goes, though, because sometimes I get a little busy.(Crosses fingers.)

    When I first began reading your post, I thought this was the author of a series of mysteries that take place in Egypt. I believe her name is Eliabeth Peters. Then I saw that this was a different Elizabeth. Lol. Anyway, I'm not much of a mystery reader, but it looks like this series takes place at some point in the 19th century. If so, then I'm DEFINITELY very interested!! And the mention of Scotland Yard reminds me of my beloved Sherlock Holmes! (Yes, I ADORE those mysteries!!!)

    I will look up these books on Goodreads. It looks like I'll be adding them to my GR shelves!!

    Thanks for sharing these books!! Sorry for the late comment back.... :( Thanks so much for stopping by and commenting on my "Waiting On Wednesday" post!! <3 :)

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    1. Maria - I like the idea of the Shelf Control meme quite a bit. I think it will be a great way to "shop" my own shelves and highlight some older books. I focus so much on newer ones these days.

      I have heard of Elizabeth Peters, but never read her books. Elizabeth George's novels are contemporary mysteries, I believe, so I am not sure they would appeal to you. Her books were turned into a TV show, although I have yet to see it.

      No need to apologize! I am often late in replying to comments--and even commenting!

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  10. I have read a ton of these! Every time the library added a new book, I grabbed it. Twisty mysteries with great character development.

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    1. Jenclair - I was surprised to see how many books there are in the series! I definitely am not hurting for reading material. :-)

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