John Lee does a fabulous reading, as always. Elizabeth George’s particularly likable and well developed investigative characters, Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley and Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers, get involved in another psychologically twisted plot that kept me riveted the entire twenty-one and a half hours. ( )

George crafts a careful tale where characters are slowly developed to show their multiple facets and secrets. There is nothing splashy about this novel, but it leads the reader through various assumptions and reversals which keep the rhythm going. This minutia helps create the final shock, expected but emotionally charged and thoroughly appalling.
While I would have preferred less details about tea and daily routines, I did very much enjoy the slow pace and the many story lines that converge nicely. ( )

(2015)George is back with the solid writing and storyline that I used to love. Lynley and Havers try to figure out how two women have been poisoned. An employee, Caroline, has been blackmailed by the author she is working for and devises a plan to keep her quiet. The deed she is covering up is the fact of sexual abuse of her sons in the name of keeping seizures from overwhelming them. The courtly Inspector Lynley and rougher-edged Sgt. Havers meet again for another adventure in genteel mayhem.Is anyone in England happy? Not to gauge by this latest yarn of George's (Just One Evil Act, 2013, etc.), which ranges from the white cliffs of Dorset to the whiter districts of London. Young William Goldacre, on the face of it, is aptly named: he has a girlfriend who's affectionate, if ?a pierced and tattooed creature? with an unusual-enough look to scare the country gentry, and he's a wizard in the garden, ?expert, visionary, artist, and laborer.? So why did Will sneak off and throw himself into the churning sea as if an extra in Quadrophenia? That's a question for psychologists to ponder. If, that is, they have a minute to spare, for the self-help author caught up in events turns up dead, too, and those on whom suspicion falls have problems of their own: the author's editor goes around with a PAD�a ?psychological assistance dog,? that is¥while Will's mum, who's bound up in all this mess, may or may not be a pathological liar with a murderous streak. Meanwhile, Inspector Lynley, who knows his way around a martini glass and the Tate, finds himself in conversations about just why Sgt. Havers never bothers to fix her hair. Caught up in the slough of despond, the assorted cast should barely have energy to commit crime and cover it up, much less solve the mischief. Yet they manage to pull themselves together and do that heavy lifting. Heaviness, too, figures into the tale, as does depression, madness, jealousy, and the ordinary misunderstandings¥a trademark George scenario, that is, including apparent mishaps that have more sinister causes.In her 20th mystery, George delivers just what she always has: storylines that take a long time to resolve and narratives that are a shade too long but that in the end are always satisfying.Pub Date: Oct. 27th, 2015ISBN: 978-0-525-95433-0Page count: 736ppPublisher: VikingReview Posted Online: Aug. 16th, 2015Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1st, 2015

Swedish review

Oanade konsekvenser är den första Thomas Lynley och Barbara Havers boken jag har läst på flera år, men det känns inte alls som om jag har missat något trots att jag åtminstone inte har läst de senaste 10 böckerna om inte fler. Jag måste erkänna att jag var lite tveksam till boken innan jag började. Men så är den över 600 sidor lång och av erfarenhet vet jag att för att lyckats få läsarna att inte tröttna måste berättelsen hela vägen ha ett flyt och tursamt nog hade boken det. Dock, måste jag erkänna trots att den inte på något sätt var tråkig så saknade jag något med berättelsen, trots den intressanta storyn så kände jag att jag aldrig riktigt fängslades av berättelsen.

Barbara Havers har tydligen begått grova klavertramp i ett tidigare fall och polischefen, Isabelle Ardery, hotar med att förflytta Havers om hon på något sätt gör något överilat och det påverkar berättelsen då hon måste bete sig exemplariskt. Men, hon har Lynely på sin sida som en räddande riddare som försöker få deras chef att förstå att Havers måste få vara Havers, för det är då hon är som bäst som polis. Men Ardery är inte den lättaste att övertala, trots att hon och Lynely en gång i tiden tydligen var väldigt, väldigt nära varandra.

Fallet med den mördade författaren Clare Abbott är intressant även om det kändes som om det tog en lång tid innan allting kom igång, under de första 250 sidorna hände det inte så mycket förutom att Abbotts personliga assistents son tog livet av sig. Men sedan efter mordet på Clare Abbott så kom berättelsen igång och trots avsaknaden av spänning så är boken ändå mycket välskriven och intressant att läsa.

Efter att ha läst Oanade konsekvenser är jag är väldigt sugen på att läsa om de böckerna som jag har läst och sedan ta itu med de som jag har missat. Får se bara när jag får tid till det...

Tack till Norstedts för recensionsexemplaret!

English review

This is the first Thomas Lynley and Barbara Haver book I have read in years. However, it did not feel like I have missed that much despite that I haven't read over 10 books (probably more). I was a bit doubtful towards the book before I started to read it. It's over 600 pages long and I know as a reader that the author really needs to be able to write a story that keeps the reader interested all the way and a 600-page book is tricky. Fortunately, the book manages to keep my interest all the way through. However, I must admit that I felt that something was lacking with the story. It was interesting to read, but I never felt totally engrossed with the story. But, I enjoyed reading about Lynley and Havers again.

Barbara Haver has apparently done something wrong in a previous case and Isabelle Ardery, the police chief is threatening to have her transferred if she does anything wrong again. And, that means that Havers have to behave and that's hard for her (but quite fun to read about). Fortunately, she has Lynley on her side like a knight in shining armor and he is trying through the book to make Ardery understand that Havers need to be Havers to work, but Ardery isn't easy to convince, despite that Lynley and she once upon a time actually were pretty close.

The case with the murdered author Clare Abbott was interesting, but it felt like forever for the story to get started. Not much happened during the first 250 pages of the book except that Abbott's personal assistant's son killed himself. But the story got more interesting after the murder of Clare Abbott. And, despite the fact that the book lacked any real thrilling moments was the book well-written and I enjoyed reading it.

I feel that now after reading A Banquet of Consequences do I want to read again the first book in the series and then read the ones that I have missed. I just need to find some time for that...

Thanks Norstedts for the review copy!
( )

I like Elizabeth George and her Lindley- Havers books, but not this one. The pace was slow,, and Haver's character is distorted so it is unlike anything in the other books in the series. I listened to only about 40% of the book. Maybe it got better, but I did not enjoy the experience and I have many good books to read, so I stopped. ( )