I read a lot. In particular, I read a lot of mysteries. And yet, there are so many authors I have never read, and so many books of which I’ve never even heard. That, I believe, is a good thing. I will never run out of things to read. Heaven forbid.
One of the authors I follow on Facebook recently posted something that caught my attention. She said she didn’t think she had ever seen a book made into a movie in which the main characters portrayed in the movie were so drastically different from how she had pictured them from the books, both physically and their personalities, as the Inspector Lynley mysteries, written by Elizabeth George and dramatized by PBS in their Masterpiece Mystery series.
That caught my attention. First of all, I had never heard of Inspector Lynley, and I thought I knew all of the fictional detectives solving murders in British mysteries. Second of all, I absolutely LOVE PBS’s Masterpiece Mysteries and 
ALL of their detectives – Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, Detective Chief Superintendent Christopher Foyle, Sherlock Holmes, Inspector Robert Lewis, Constable Endeavor, well, the list goes on and on. But I had never heard of Detective Inspector Tommy Lynley, the 8th Earl of Asherton. Nope, not a clue.
So, the first thing I did was find the Masterpiece Mystery series on Netflix and watch the first one – A Great Deliverance. I was hooked, and immediately watched all of the series that is available on Netflix streaming. Now I’m getting the others from the library.
Let me tell you about Detective Inspector Lynley and his sidekick Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers.
Lynley is upper crust old England, literally an earl, educated at Eaton and Oxford. He is paired with Detective Sergeant Havers who couldn’t possibly be more different. She is the daughter of working class and terribly dysfunctional parents. She was publically educated and is struggling to make it as a woman at New Scotland Yard. It doesn’t help that she has the biggest chip on her shoulder, is terribly unattractive and resentful of almost everybody, making her difficult to get along with. The powers that be, sensing that underneath it all is a smart and talented detective, give her one more chance by pairing her with Lynley, raising her hackles.
In Elizabeth George’s first novel, A Great Deliverance, the two are sent to York to solve the gruesome and violent murder of a man who is found beheaded next to his teenaged daughter. The daughter is in a state of shock, but says, “I did it. I’m not sorry.”
Seems cut and dried. It, of course, isn’t.
The author is an American, but the series, oddly I think, takes place in Great Britain. I’m not sure why. George even writes using British spellings. The feel of the books is entirely contemporary British. One thing I want to mention is that I have never read a book in which there were so many words that I had to look up in the dictionary. I was glad I was reading an ebook version because it was easy to obtain the meaning. It became sort of a game to see how many words I had to look up in a few pages. Having said this, I must tell you that I didn’t find this off putting in the least. I’m not sure why.
A Great Deliverance was an extremely good book, eminently readable and compelling. The odd pairing of Lynley and Havers, and the way George develops their relationship, made for great background to a really, really good mystery. Having already watched the movie, I of course knew the ending. Still, there were tremendous differences between the book and the movie that kept it interesting, including the reasons for the murder itself. I am eager to read the next in what I am thankful is a long series.
And do I agree with the writer who talked about the difference between the characters in the books and in the movies? Absolutely. The actress who plays Havers is not nearly as prickly as the character in the book. What’s more, she is actually quite attractive, despite clear attempts to look plain. And she simply doesn’t dislike Lynley as much in the movie as she did in the book. But I will watch the entire series as well as read the books.
What a great find! I heartily recommend both the book (I haven’t read any others so I have to limit it to A Great Deliverance) and the movie. I can’t wait to read the next in the series.
Nana's Whimsies 
I was kind of so so on the series. The guy wasn’t that believable to me. Truth be told, I was highly biased, because A mystery snob had told me that Elizabeth George was American. Perhaps I wasn’t fair to the characters.
Did you read the books or watch the movies, and did it make a difference?
Just watched Masterpiece Mystery. I should give the books a try.
And you’ll simply HAVE to get over the fact that Elizabeth George is an American. I was trying to find out on the internet why she chose to write British mysteries, and she said it was simply because she is an Anglophile. She said if she knew how often she would be asked that very question, she would have not chosen to do so. But I know how it is when one gets rankled about something. I, for example, got rankled about the fact that the Harry Potter books were so popular so I showed J.K. Rowling and haven’t read them. I’m pretty sure I’m missing out on some good reading by being stubborn.
I’ll check out this tv show. But I’ve grounded myself from Netflix until I finish our book club book! 😙
I might need to do the same!
I just finished a book called The Invisible Code, which is about the Peculiar Crimes Unit. I mention it because, like Kris, I needed to look up a lot of words and phrases, and even names of people and places. This book is well into the series and I liked it, but I might have been better off reading the first book.