Books

Deception on His Mind
A Time for Justice
The Bone Collector
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
Concert of Ghosts
Brandenburg
The Long Close Call
Hard Landing
Single and Single
Square Mile
A Slow Burning
The Dealer
A Place of Hiding
A Place of Hiding
The Empty Chair
Balance of Power
A Hank of Hair: An Exquisite Danse Macabre (Wakefield Crime Classics)
Vanishing Point: Where Intimacy Turns to Violence (Wakefield Crime Classics)
Chinamen: AND Tunnel Rats
Hear No Evil
Hear No Evil
The White Tower
Land of the Blind
In Matto's Realm (Sergeant Studer Mystery S.)
Assassination Day

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A Slow 750 Page Mega Novel and Then a Bad Ending, or Essentially No Ending, Yikes!!!
unbelievable ending ruins a decent book
deception aplenty
My least favorite of hers
Continuing Plot Complications Provide Character Insights

Deception on His Mind
Elizabeth George
Manufacturer: Bantam
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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In Pursuit of the Proper Sinner
In the Presence of the Enemy
Playing for the Ashes
A Traitor to Memory
Missing Joseph

ASIN: 0553575090
Release Date: 1998-10-06

Amazon.com

In Deception on His Mind Sergeant Barbara Havers places herself at the center of an investigation in Essex concerning the mysterious death of a recently arrived immigrant from Pakistan. Although still recovering from the broken ribs and nose (received at the end of In the Presence of the Enemy), Havers convinces herself that she needs to stay on the job in order to help her neighbor Taymullah Azhar and his elfin daughter Hadiyyah who have a familial connection to the dead man. As is typical with Elizabeth George's novels (this is the 10th in a popular and powerful series), the murder and its investigation are the central feature of the story. But in this case they are also the means by which she explores the Pakistani experience in a foreign and not always friendly culture. As Havers herself notes, the food may well have improved in Britain with an increasingly diverse population, but that same population has "engendered a score of polyglot problems." Whether or not the dead man is a victim of a racially motivated crime is only one of the questions Havers tries to sort out. The result, with George's typically complex characterizations and deft plot turns, is a deeply satisfying novel. Fans of Havers's superior officer, Thomas Lynley, and his lady love Helen Clyde will be disappointed as the two are off on their honeymoon. But with Lynley out of the picture, Havers, with her prickly personality, caustic tongue, and sound investigative skills, comes well and truly into her own. Nitpickers might question one aspect of the final denouement--motive and opportunity are securely in place but the means are on the outskirts of unbelievable. Still, the book is a rich and enjoyable one that continues to tickle the imagination well after it has been shelved amidst other favorites. --K.A. Crouch

Book Description

Balford-le-Nez is a dying seatown on the coast of Essex. But when a member of the town's small but growing Asian community, is found dead on its beach, his neck broken, sleepy Balford-le-Nez ignites. Working solo, without her long-time partner Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley, Sergeant Barbara Havers must probe not only the mind of a murderer and a case very close to her own heart, but the terrible price people pay for deceiving others...and themselves.

Customer Reviews:

A Slow 750 Page Mega Novel and Then a Bad Ending, or Essentially No Ending, Yikes!!!.......2007-03-17

This is my first Elizabeth George novel and it was a great disappointment. What was the author thinking? She is a good writer but the structure and length is simply awful here. I think she got caught up with her writing experience and lost sight of what makes a good novel. Somehow a simple police novel became longer than Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, 300 pages longer than Dostoevsky, believe it or not.

The novel opens strongly with a good hook: a murder on a beach on the English east coast. But, then that incident is followed by the long introduction of character after character, each with a detailed introduction. By page 100, the reader starts to think about terminating the read. By page 250 the plot has become clear and the motivation to read the whole 750 page novel has evaporated. Why read another 500 pages when we know who are the bad guys? After that I could not read each and every page. It was a mindless read that would take two or three days, and I skipped forward to page 600 or so where I picked up the story - without missing a heartbeat - and continued to read each and every word. It appeared that I had missed nothing of consequence in my jump over hundreds of pages. The novel ended inconclusively about 150 pages later and my hunch about the outcome was 75% correct. Overall, this was a bad reading experience.

There are many fundamental problems here. The two protagonists are two female police officers but they do not act like police officers. There seems to be no crime scene investigation, and for example, one of them walks around the hotel room of the victim picking up and examining objects at random. Was that room ever investigated properly? There are no police procedures in what is supposed to be a police story. So, that element lacks realism.

Secondly, the level of conversation is at a banal level, where the women use words such as "snigger" and other slang. They have a lot of mindless talk and not much action. Every 50 pages or so there is a sex related incident which I presume that is supposed to keep the reader interested.

There are lots of characters living in the seaside community in the UK, including a large group of Pakistani immigrants. The victim is a Pakistani male so a question is whether or not this is a hate crime. That is a main plot element here. The author handles this well, but again, these sections are far too long and inconclusive.

So, the problem is length, far too long. This is not War and Peace, it is a detective story: 750 pages! And, the primary character, Barbara, a police woman from Scotland Yard is not that sympathetic a character. George's famous Inspector Lynley plays no important role here.

This is a novel that should be 350 pages but somehow survived the edit and was published as a 750 page mega-novel. It is a novel to avoid: 3 stars.

unbelievable ending ruins a decent book.......2006-12-17

*be warned, spoilers ahead* There are plenty of reviews here so mine will be superfluous, but I can't pass up the opportunity to vent about this book. There are lots of good things in her little snapshot of British race relations, small town politics, etc. But as a mystery, the book falls flat with a completely stupid ending. There is no possible way that the murderer could have done the murder as it is described in the book. George has spent considerable (!) time building up a picture of the cloistered existence of these Pakistani women: they rarely leave the house, they are never seen by strange men, etc. etc. etc. and suddenly we're supposed to believe this woman sneaks out of the house to trail a guy around long enough to figure out his habits and routines, then she steals a jet-ski, races across the sea to set up an elaborate trap to murder him while making it appear as an accident (not noticing the other person lurking around watching), and jet-skis home, all unnoticed by her ever-present family members? Give me a break. It's lazy writing and it's insulting to readers to give them a crap ending like that after ALL that build-up.

deception aplenty.......2005-11-06

The possible murder of businessman and soon-to-be married Haytham Querashi causes an uproar in the Pakistani community in England, who do not trust the police to fairly conduct their investigation. While her partner Lynley is (thankfully) on his honeymoon, Detective Barbara Havers joins up with her old school friend Emily Barlow to investigate the death. Tensions flare between a local Pakistani activist, who happens to be the cousin of her neighbor, who is mediating, and the English-born detectives. A pregnancy, underlying racism and classism, an extortion ring and a kidnapping help make this book a fast-paced and absorbing read. However, some important plot threads are left dangling, most importantly the pregnant widow. Did she have an abortion? If not, will her family still accept her? Why go to all the trouble of developing a character, if you're going to deprive the reader of her fate.

My least favorite of hers.......2005-07-18

I usually find George's novels such page-turners that I can forgive a lot of so-called imperfections. This was an exception. For an American, she seems to understand quite a bit (if not everything) about English culture and some English-subculture, but she was unable to get under the skin of the mostly-Pakistani characters in this novel. Even the likeable Sahlah was two-dimensional and remote. Her deformed friend was pathetic and embarrassing. George needs to limit her "ethnic" characters if she doesn't understand them.

Continuing Plot Complications Provide Character Insights.......2005-06-29

In Deception on His Mind, Elizabeth George eloquently answered all of her critiques who felt that she cannot write decent mystery plots that match her remarkable characterizations. Unfettered by the urbane Thomas Lynley who is off on his honeymoon with Lady Helen, Ms. George features the redoubtable

Barbara Havers as the detective in this story. Seeing English society from "downstairs" as it were, the story has more grit than usual and the seamy side of the elite is more exposed as well.

As the story opens, Havers is recuperating from her physical and emotional injuries incurred in In the Presence of the Enemy. With a bruised face and cracked ribs, she's supposed to take time off. The Pakistani fiance of a local entrepreneur has been found murdered on a beach in Essex. That event brings Havers' neighbor, Taymullah Azhar, and his daughter, Hadiyyah, to the seaside resort of Balford-le-Nez. Havers recalls found memories of this part of the coast and soon follows, finding herself embroiled in both the murder and a complicated family situation of Azhar's.

Havers goes with her gut, and her instincts soon have her in hot water. And the case is a baffling one. There are leads in all directions, but tracking down those leads doesn't solve the murder.

The underlying themes of the book include racism, class snobbery, the painful limits that religion can bring, and the constraints of a family's heritage. I have no idea if this book accurately displays modern day English society or not, but it makes for interesting, if uncomfortable, reading.

But I thought the best part of the book came in the careful exploration of the social customs and beliefs among the Pakistani characters. It's seldom that an author from the United States succeeds in taking readers into an alien culture in a way that makes that culture more understandable. Ms. George has clearly succeeded in this regard.

My only complaint is that Ms. George feels that she has to include characters, once again, who are totally hollow. Those characters seem overdone and weaken the story. There are more depths to real people, even the hollowish ones, than Ms. George is willing to credit.

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Deception on His Mind
Elizabeth George
Manufacturer: Bantam
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000IAXTMS

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Deception on His Mind
ELIZABETH GEORGE
Manufacturer: New English Library Ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OV8FSY

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Deception on His Mind
Elizabeth George
Manufacturer: Books on Tape
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Cassette

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Product Description

Detective Sargeant Barbara Havers is working without Inspector Lynley this time in a case that involves her Pakastani neighbor & his daughter.

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Deception on His Mind
Elizabeth George
Manufacturer: Bantam
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000HKPJLI

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Deception On His Mind 36 Copy Bin
Elizabeth George
Manufacturer: Hodder & Stoughton General Division
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0340722991

3 Titles By Elizabeth George : A Place of Hiding Deception on His Mind A Great Deliverence

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3 Titles By Elizabeth George : A Place of Hiding Deception on His Mind A Great Deliverence
Elizabeth George
Manufacturer: various
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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multiple books ship as one item. save on shipping/handling charges.

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Deception on His Mind
Elizabeth George
Manufacturer: Bantam
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000HKTQ58

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Deception On His Mind
Elizabeth George
Manufacturer: Hodder & Stoughton
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0340689307

2 for 1 Shipping Charge - Elizabeth George (Deception on His Mind and In Pursuit of the Proper Sinner)

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2 for 1 Shipping Charge - Elizabeth George (Deception on His Mind and In Pursuit of the Proper Sinner)
Elizabeth George
Manufacturer: Bantam Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000PH9SG0

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