I'm just starting this series and I enjoyed this first book in the series so much that I'm looking forward to read them all.
The story was very good. I really like all the characters and the setting of England is great.
My reason for not giving 5 stars was that I felt the author left me with questions about the personal lives of the characters.

Betty W. (
Bet) wrote on 11/21/2007...
This is the first time I haave read this author, it was a very good murder mystery
To this day, the low, thin wail of an infant can be heard in Keldale's lush green valleys. Three hundred years ago, as legend goes, the frightened Yorkshire villagers smothered a crying babe in Keldale Abbey, where they'd hidden to escape the ravages of Cromwell's raiders.
Now into Keldale's pastoral web of old houses and older secrets comes Scotland Yard Inspector Thomas Lynley, the eighth earl of Asherton. Along with the redoubtable Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers, Lynley has been sent to solve a savage murder that has stunned the peaceful countryside. For fat, unlovely Roberta Teys has been found in her best dress, an axe in her lap, seated in the old stone barn beside her father's headless corpse. Her first and last words were "I did it. And I'm not sorry."
Yet as Lynley and Havers wind their way through Keldale's dark labyrinth of secret scandals and appalling crimes, they uncover a shattering series of revelations that will reverberate through this tranquil English valley—and in their own lives as well.

Tabetha G. (
Tabetha) wrote on 3/31/2007...
Lynley has been sent to solve a savage murder that has stunned the peaceful country side. For fat, unlovely Roberta Teys has been found found in her best dress, an axe in her lap,seated in the old stone barn beside her fathers headless corpse. Her first words were * I did it. And I'm not sorry*
The beginning of the Lynley/Havers series, in which they work together for the first time.
To this day, the low, thin wail of an infant can be heard in Keldale's lush green valleys. Three hundred years ago, as legend goes, the frightened Yorkshire villagers smothered a crying babe in Keldale Abbey, where they'd hidden to escape the ravages of Cromwell's raiders.
Now into Keldale's pastoral web of old houses and older secrets comes Scotland Yard Inspector Thomas Lynley, the eighth earl of Asherton. Along with the redoubtable Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers, Lynley has been sent to solve a savage murder that has stunned the peaceful countryside. For fat, unlovely Roberta Teys has been found in her best dress, an axe in her lap, seated in the old stone barn beside her father's headless corpse. Her first and last words were "I did it. And I'm not sorry."
Yet as Lynley and Havers wind their way through Keldale's dark labyrinth of secret scandals and appalling crimes, they uncover a shattering series of revelations that will reverberate through this tranquil English valley--and in their own lives as well.
Inspector Lynley and Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers are sent to solve a particuarly savage murder; but things are not always what they seem. Fat, unlovely Roberta is found in her best dress, an axe in her lap, seated next to her father's headless corpse. A great who-dun-it.
Inspector Thomas Lynley and Det. Sgt. Barbara Havers travel to Yorkshire to solve a savage ax murder.

NancyAnn T. (
ArrowGold) wrote on 6/15/2006...
Scotland Yard Inspector Lynley (who also happens to be the eighth Earl of Asherton, along with Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers, set out to solve a savage murder that has rocked the peaceful country side of Keldale. The solution of this crime will ruin the tranquility of this English valley.

Barbara M. S. (
SWEETIE) wrote on 6/14/2006...
Another great Inspector Thomas Lynly mystery set in Yorkshire. If you haven't discovered Elizabeth George, you're missing a treat.