A review by mfeibel
A Suitable Vengeance by Elizabeth George

2.0

Read for book club, it took me a long time to get into it. The first body doesn't even fall until about 100 pages in. I found myself far more intrigued by the Lynley/Deborah/St. James triangle than the actual mystery. And even that didn't seem like it was up for debate until the last few pages. And since this is a prequel, anyone reading it knows that Deborah and St. James end up together. So it wouldn't be a surprise if you read them in publication order. I felt George spent too much time on flowery and dramatic description than she did on making the mystery interesting and exciting. I frequently forgot aspects of the crime because so much time was spent analyzing the personal lives of the characters.

And in the end, it was so nicely convenient that the killer was the man Lynley hates all along.

All this being said, I might give her other books a chance as I've heard they're better. And I do like the characters (especially the fact that Deborah and Simon ended up together), I just wanted a more exciting mystery.