Because Ideas Matter...
The faculty and staff of Butler University's College of Liberal
Arts and Sciences presents
Recommended Readings
Believing the Lie
by Elizabeth George, Dutton, 2012
Reviewed by Larry W. Riggs
Elizabeth George has always been an
ambitious writer. Her mysteries are long, complex, and informed by
knowledge of psychology, society, and literary traditions. In her
most recent book, an addition to the long Thomas Lynley series the
series that inspired a set of television dramas--George sets
herself a narrative problem that she must have relished: the
mystery here is whether a crime has actually been committed. As
George explores a wide range of characters and motives, including
Lynley's own quasi-masochistic relationship with his alcoholic
boss, Isabelle Ardery, the reader feels alternately certain and
doubtful about whether a murder has occurred. Lynley is sent,
undercover, to the country estate of Bernard Fairclough, a man who
has used his wife's money to become a "self-made" success, and
whose nephew, Ian, has drowned-or been drowned?-in the lake
adjacent to the property. It gradually becomes clear that the
Faircloughs rival families in Greek tragedy in internecine hatreds
and individual problems. Ian had left his wife and family for a
male lover. Nicholas, Bernard's son, is recovering from a drug
habit of epic proportions. One of Bernard's daughters has spent her
life faking semi-invalidism, the better to spy on and exploit her
family. Each time Lynley, and the reader, become convinced that the
drowning was accidental, George introduces a new and powerful
motive that might well have brought someone to murder Ian. In my
view, this story is well worth its length.
- Larry W. Riggs is Professor of French at Butler
University.