A Traitor to Memory, Elizabeth George
A Traitor to Memory, Elizabeth George
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A Traitor to Memory

Author: Elizabeth George

Narrator: Simon Jones

Abridged: 5 hr 49 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 06/26/2001


Synopsis

When Eugenie Davies is killed by a driver on a quiet London street, her death is clearly no accident. Someone struck her with a car and then deliberately ran over her body before driving off, leaving nothing behind but questions.

What brought Eugenie Davies to London on a rainy autumn night? Why was she carrying the name of the man who found her body? Who among the many acquaintances in her complicated and tragic life could have wanted her dead? And could her murder have some connection to a twenty-eight-year-old musical wunderkind, a virtuoso violinist who several months earlier suddenly and inexplicably lost the ability to play a single note?

For Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley, whose own domestic life is about to change radically, these questions are only the first in an investigation that leads him to walk a fine line between personal loyalty and professional honor.

Assigned to the case by his superior, Superintendent Malcolm Webberly, Lynley learns that Webberly's first murder investigation as a DI over twenty years ago involved Eugenie Davies and a sensational criminal trial. Yet what is truly damaging is what Webberly already knows and no doubt wants Lynley to keep concealed.

Now the pressure is on Lynley to find Eugenie Davies' killer. For not only is he putting his own career into jeopardy, but he is also attempting to safeguard the careers of his longtime partners Barbara Havers and Winston Nkata. Together, they must untangle the dark secrets and darker passions of a family whose history conceals the truth behind a horrific crime.

About The Author

Elizabeth George’s first novel, A Great Deliverance, was honored with the Anthony and Agatha Best First Novel Awards and received the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière. Her third novel, Well-Schooled in Murder, was awarded the prestigious German prize for suspense fiction, the MIMI. A Suitable Vengeance, For the Sake of Elena, Missing Joseph, Playing for the Ashes, In the Presence of the Enemy, Deception on His Mind, In Pursuit of the Proper Sinner, A Traitor to Memory, and I, Richard were international bestsellers. Elizabeth George divides her time between Huntington Beach, California, and London. Her novels are currently being dramatized by the BBC.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Karo on September 10, 2016

I've read all of Elizabeth George's Thomas Lynley/Barbara Havers series, and I must say that this is the weakest of the bunch. One of the aspects that I've always enjoyed in this mystery series is the attention that the author paid to the lives of the two main characters. In A Traitor to Memory, tha......more

Goodreads review by Kellie on September 19, 2008

(#11 of the Havers-Lynley series) Wow…This was another masterpiece by George. I have never read another book like the ones George puts out. Amazon’s rating does not do it justice. This author, in my humble opinion, is ingenious. The book is about many things. The main plot is about a family. A famil......more

Goodreads review by Kathy on March 22, 2017

Eleventh in the Inspector Lynley mystery series based in London at Scotland Yard and revolving around policemen. My Take This is a gawd awful depressing story but an essential read if you prefer to follow your characters chronologically. There is so much in here that you need to know. I think. I had a......more

Goodreads review by Susan on November 08, 2020

2.5, I guess. This was officially my least favorite so far of the Lynley books. Neither Lynley or Havers is in it much at all, the focus is mostly on one character and it seems as though he narrates 3/4's of the very long book. Which is fine, I guess if he had been more interesting, but every time I......more

Goodreads review by aPriL does feral sometimes on December 13, 2014

I think ‘A Traitor to Memory’ was an interesting book to read. It dissects a dysfunctional family which rotates around two human suns made important by family dynamics, a son and an obsessive father. First is the musical prodigy, Gideon Davies, who is a minor sensation in classical music circles, a......more


Quotes

Praise for A Traitor to Memory

“A superbly paced, all-consuming treat. . . . George has the ability to display and then dissect her characters in a painfully realistic way. If dogged police work is what you demand from mysteries, hit the sidewalk with these complicated British detectives.”USA Today

“This can only add to her growing reputation as doyenne of English mystery novelists. . . . Some particularly moving moments.”Publishers Weekly

“Wrenching . . . George still stands several rungs up the ladder from her more superficial rivals.”Kirkus Reviews


Praise for Elizabeth George

“Elizabeth George reigns as queen of the mystery genre. The Lynley books constitute the smartest, most gratifyingly complex and impassioned mystery series now being published.”
Entertainment Weekly

“A master of the British mystery.”The New York Times

“Ms. George can do it all, with style to spare.”The Wall Street Journal

“It’s tough to resist George’s storytelling, once hooked.”USA Today

“George is a master. . . . She upholds the English tradition beautifully.”—Chicago Tribune

“George explores her characters’ dreams and fears with a penetrating grace that makes reading her books a joy.”The Washington Post Book World

"A fascinating list of subjects . . . wrenching stories . . . George conveys them all with exceptional grace."People