Reviews

Le Rouge Du Péché by Elizabeth George

dhoofwijk's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

mckeanja's review against another edition

adventurous challenging hopeful mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

dreynoldsbook's review against another edition

mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

My first time reading Elizabeth George and I enjoyed it up to a point. It has a good set up and the writing is enjoyable. I feel it was overlong, though, and some of the character traits were dubious. The motivations of the characters often didn’t ring true. Also, the end wasn’t very satisfying - never a good thing at the end of a long read. The culprit was quite easy to guess.

More problematic as regards the whole series, though, is the landed gentry as a copper thing. I didn’t buy it really.

beckca03's review against another edition

4.0

Finally - I got back into Elizabeth George. She's just a great as ever. While I wish the plot picked up a bit quicker, I really enjoyed the revisit to Lynley's wife's death.

joaniesickler's review against another edition

3.0

It's like seeing old friends after some time apart. Great beginning. So good to hear about Thomas Lynley again and, of course, Barbara Havers. It must be close to 15 years ago I started reading this series by Elizabeth George. The mystery itself is decent but it's the characters and the atmosphere that reign. The latest of her books is waiting on my Kindle. Can't wait.

smusie's review against another edition

4.0

Wow, reading this back-to-back with The Private Patient was something of a relevation. Whoever called Elizabeth George the poor woman's PD James? (Besides me, that is.) Careless in Red was extremely good, and dare I say it, better than the latest PDJ. The cast of characters was more diverse, the setting (Cornwall) more distinct, and the dialogue more mysterious. Isn't a mystery supposed to be a mystery to the reader as well as the detectives in the story? E. George did a great job of keeping me guessing as to what the heck was going on--characters would have conversations in which I really had no idea what they were talking about, and yet there was nothing extraneous to the story in retrospect. Everything was there for a reason, and there wasn't a long post-denouement section of everyone living happily ever after. Now I can see why she killed off Helen--Tommy has to be unhappy to be a good detective indefinitely. That's why the end of The Private Patient kind of sucked--Dalgliesh got married, blah blah blah. Would Jane Tennison get married at the end of Prime Suspect? These people aren't supposed to be happy. Anyway, a good read, and since I checked it out of the library, it was free, too!

carla2024's review against another edition

mysterious slow-paced

• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

1.0

alice_wonders's review against another edition

4.0

Elizabeth George finally brings Scotland Yard's Detective Superintendent Thomas Lynley back after recuperating from a tragic loss. This time to investigate the accidental (?)death of a local rockclimber off the coast of Cornwall.

marrbarnett's review against another edition

emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

3.25

therealkathryn's review against another edition

3.0

I'd give this 3 1/2 stars if I could. It was a pretty good read but suffered from too many characters, too much detail and too little Lynley and Havers.