![]() In “Payment in Blood,” a thespian troupe gathers at a Scottish estate to go over a talented playwright’s latest- and last- work: she is stabbed to her mattress in the middle of a busy night, and nearly everyone in the cast looks suspicious, from rival actors to roaming lovers. ![]() ![]() (And George’s constant reminders of how Havers’ every girl plainness is supposed to contrast with Linley’s aristocratic studliness get annoying quick.) George’s writing is always literate and evocative, Linley and Havers’ partnership starts promisingly, but the mystery itself goes nowhere that isn’t obvious. Re-reading this I got a sharper sense of stultifying Brit classism that went over my head when I first read this years ago becoming a fan. A Yorkshire farmhouse beheading unearths all those hideous secrets every small British town seems to have by the score. Elizabeth George’s “A Great Deliverance” is 1st in the now classic Thomas Linley / Barbara Havers series. ![]()
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