Zand over Elena by Elizabeth George

3.77 AVERAGE

oooyoufancyhuh's profile picture

oooyoufancyhuh's review against another edition

Couldn't stomach the subject matter. Skipped it and went on to the next in the series.
balisally's profile picture

balisally's review against another edition

3.0
Not bad however Havers has to be the most abrasive sidekick ever to have been written into a book.

Not too many redeeming characters in this but the description of the Cambridge Colleges is quite good. Lady Helen is just plain irritating and Lynley was a bit soppy in this tale.

leasttorque's review against another edition

1.0
While I can still get something out of any book by this author, this one also seriously bugged me. The reveal was inconsistent with earlier parts of the text. The motive for the crime was hard to swallow, as was the choice of victim given that motive. There was a section that seemed ripped from a romance novel, as I can only imagine a romance novel to be. That was enough to spoil the more interesting bits, of which there were many, as usual, in a lengthy book with copious red herrings.

bbrien's review against another edition

4.0
Published in 1992, aspects of this work seemed as relevant today as they were 20 plus years ago. It was these aspects that caused me to rate this book a 4 rather than a 3. As enmeshed in the turbulence of 2016 politics as I am, several of the commentaries on human interactions in the last century struck home to the extent I wonder if we will every overcome what arguably must be the baser nature of humanity. Will sexism ever end? Will people continue to define each other by money and an arbitrarily assigned 'class'?

"Lady Helen continued to hold her. She tried to frame a question and wondered where to start and what she could ask that would not betray her growing anger. The fact that her rage was multi-directional served to make the act of concealing it only that much more difficult.

"She felt it first for Harry and for the needs of ego that would prompt a man to urge for the breeding of another child, as if what was being created were a demonstration of the father's virility, and not an individual with decided needs of its own. She felt it also for her sister and for the fact that she had given in to that sense of duty inbred in women from the beginning of time, a duty which told them that the possession of a functioning womb necessarily served as a definition of self."



"Lynley gave thought to Derek's words as he walked back to the south end of the island and ducked under the established police line. How often had he heard variations on that theme espoused religiously over the last few years? We've no class system any longer, it's dead and gone. It was always stated with well-meaning sincerity by someone whose career, whose background, or whose money effectively blinded him to the reality of life. While family trees whose roots plunged deeply into British soil, those without access to ready money or even the hope of saving a few pounds from their weekly pay, those were the people who recognized the insidious social strata of a society that claimed no strata existed at the very same moment as it labelled a man from the sound of his voice."


chiara_casoli's profile picture

chiara_casoli's review against another edition

3.0
Lui non voleva ancora sentirsi felice. Gli pareva una condizione troppo effimera della vita.
karenchase's profile picture

karenchase's review against another edition

5.0
I could have taken a star just for the sad feeling I get each time I finish reading one of these mysteries. But, I couldn't do it. Maybe when I get closer to the end of the series. Anyway, after the prequel interlude we return to the main timeline, where Lynley continues to pursue Lady Helen, having realized he is in love with her (duh!), although she is preoccupied with keeping her sister's family together as she (her sister Penelope, that is) is consumed with post-partum depression after the birth of her newest child. And Havers is trying to deal with her demented mother, in a storyline that hits very close to home for me right now. I can absolutely relate to the conflict Barbara feels, wondering if she is a terrible daughter for considering long-term care for her mother, ruminating on the nature of parent-child relationships, and feeling like a bad person generally. Oh yeah, and there's also a murder. Elena is brutally killed near her college in Cambridge, and as Lynley and Havers work to unravel the mystery, they encounter haughty university profs, fractured families, and misplaced lust, all thinly veiled by academic pursuit. The setting reminds me of Grantchester (in fact some of the story takes place in that village), or Lewis (Oxford), and I definitely enjoy wandering those rarefied alleyways in my mind. Elena is the deaf daughter of a high-ranking academic, and of course as the investigation unfolds, it is revealed that the victim has two faces (at least), and once again Lynley and Havers are at odds about the motive and, therefore, the perpetrator. George is skillful at throwing just enough red herrings in the reader's path to divert the attention from the truth, which is just how I like it. I can't wait to read the next installment, even as it brings me that much closer to the series' inevitable (and dreaded) conclusion.
susieliston's profile picture

susieliston's review against another edition

3.0
This is probably my least favorite of the five books in this series I've read so far, it will still eke out 3 stars because it did keep my interest, I was just let down by the end. Much of these books are about the characters rather than the plot, but in this case the actual mystery plot ended up pretty weak. The motive for the first murder was not believable at all, and with the second murder, although the motive was clear, the fact that it occurred at all was just unnecessary, bordering on dumb.

mlubben9's review against another edition

3.0
Reading this one without reading the other books in the series was difficult. I didn't know any other characters and Lynley's relationship with Helen definitely makes it feel like I'm jumping in the middle of the story.
The mystery was good and difficult to predict, but the setting was difficult to understand - as a 27 year old dude from Kentucky. 90's England was tough to parse. What the hell is a gyp room anyway?
susysstories's profile picture

susysstories's review against another edition

3.25
dark mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated
Though I did like this instalment there were some details that have brought my rating down (
like the introduction of the stepbrother and Sarah's past which didn't fulfil any purpose; Sarah going back in case Rosalyn could give an accurate description of her but this didn't alter anything; I'm not an artist so according to the writer I couldn't understand what it means to be robbed of your creativity, but to murder a human being that had nothing to do with it, and not to win Anthony back but to take revenge? nope…; and he apparently knew but only now chose to take revenge?; and there were some mix ups of characters which could also have been mistakes that slipped into the translation
).

Characters 7
Atmosphere 7
Writing Style/Translation 6
Premise 6
Execution/Plot 6
Execution/Pace 6
Execution/Setup 6
Enjoyment/Engrossment 6

marmelb's review against another edition

3.5
mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes