A Traitor to Memory by Elizabeth George Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of A Traitor to Memory
Book Review: A very disappointing, annoying read
Summary: 1 Stars
This was my first Elizabeth George book, and likely my last. With so many layers, it was a slow and often confusing read. I don't believe I have ever read a book that left the reader with so little hope. I don't require a happy ending, not in this genre, but I felt completely frustrated. Having invested what felt like weeks reading, only to have ends of plot lines left dangling and nearly every character destroyed in one way or another seemed a bit much (not that I'd really had much reason to actually CARE about most of the characters). Call me naive, but I can't remember feeling so peeved by an ending. I feel the author simply overextended herself here. Sometimes too much is just way too much.Book Review: Agree with negative reviews...
Summary: 2 Stars
I agree with pretty much everything others have said. I am beginning to really become involved with our main characters, and this book barely featured them and lost my interest at page 100.
It has all been said: the book is too long, the ending is head-scratching and disjointed, and where are our Lynley and Havers shining through?
I don't usually like to skip books in a series, but recommend skipping this one.
Book Review: An Almost Interminable Back Story Clutters This Novel
Summary: 3 Stars
Violin virtuoso Gideon Davies (common referred to as Gideon) walks off the stage during a concert. He finds that he's lost the music and cannot play again. With the encouragement of his mentor, Gideon undergoes a long psychiatric treatment designed to bring him back to the concert stage. His therapist asks him to write his personal history, and much of the book focuses on these fragmentary memories . . . as he digs up his repressed memories.
While that alone would be enough for a novel, Ms. George also has a murder mystery for us. Someone is running over people who were connected to the death of Gideon's Down's-Syndrome sister 20 years earlier. The timing is curious because the nanny who was convicted of murder for the sister's death has just emerged from prison. Is it revenge time?
I finished the book feeling disappointed. While the character development is fascinating and thorough, the book did go on much too long. The mystery also is pretty obvious . . . except that Ms. George chooses to scatter the information in deliberately confusing ways. If the story had been developed in a straightforward way, there would have been no mystery.
I didn't really want to know as much about these characters as Ms. George chose to share with me. As in some of her earlier books, Ms. George seems to find it fascinating to describe people who have no inner life in great detail. I find that unconvincing. I think even selfish, narrow people are more complex than Ms. George makes them.
Ms. George does reward her loyal readers by revealing new aspects concerning the backgrounds of Lynley, Havers and their colleagues. Nkata emerges as a real character for the first time. This process of new revelations and character development is abetted by having four narrators, Gideon, Lynley, Havers and Nkata.
Book Review: An EG fan but more editing please
Summary: 2 Stars
Although EG is one of my favorite writers this book was a big disappointment. Lynley/Havers are two of the most credible characters in mystery and for that reason the rather small and supportive roles that they had in this story was one of its biggest drawbacks - any avid EG fan would have expected the unexpected but sad to say that the culprit with means, motive and opportunity were obvious in the first third of the book. The biggest disappointment was the ending. However, I look forward to the further development of Lynley/Havers characters in the next EG book.Book Review: An Usatisfactory Ending
Summary: 2 Stars
The ending of the book was most unsatisfying for me. Libby didn't behave as her character did throughout the book. Gideon doesn't get his question answered, unless holding Libby down by the shoulders as he'd done his sister long ago is his answer? What happens to Webberly and his wife? What happens to Richard? What happens to Wolf? For such a complicated book I was very surprised at its ending. Elizabeth George is such an excellent writer I wonder why she allowed this to be? I would not recommed this book to a new reader of George, but one reviewer was a first time reader and liked it a lot; go figure?