A Great Deliverance

By: Elizabeth George

Narrated by: Derek Jacobi

The investigation of a vicious murder exposes a quiet community’s sinister web of secrets—the “spellbinding” (Chicago Sun-Times) first novel in the #1 New York Times bestselling Inspector Lynley series

Don’t miss the upcoming BritBox streaming series Lynley!

“Pure entertainment from its insidious beginning to its gripping end.”—The Washington Post Book World

To this day, the low, thin wail of an infant can be heard in Keldale’s lush green valleys. Three hundred years ago, as legend goes, the frightened Yorkshire villagers smothered a crying babe in Keldale Abbey, where they’d hidden to escape the ravages of Cromwell’s raiders.

Now into Keldale’s pastoral web of old houses and older secrets comes Scotland Yard Inspector Thomas Lynley, the eighth earl of Asherton. Along with the redoubtable Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers, Lynley has been sent to solve a savage murder that has stunned the peaceful countryside. For fat, unlovely Roberta Teys has been found in her best dress, an axe in her lap, seated in the old stone barn beside her father’s headless corpse. Her first and last words were “I did it. And I’m not sorry.”

Yet as Lynley and Havers wind their way through Keldale’s dark labyrinth of secret scandals and appalling crimes, they uncover a shattering series of revelations that will reverberate through this tranquil English valley—and in their own lives as well.©1992 Susan Elizabeth George; (P)1992 Bantam Doubleday Dell Audio Publishing, Bantam Doubleday Dell Audio Publishing, A Division of Random House, Inc.

Critic reviews

“Elizabeth George reigns as a queen of the mystery genre. The Lynley books constitute the smartest, most gratifyingly complex and impassioned mystery series now being published.”—Entertainment Weekly

“Spellbinding . . . a truly fascinating story that is part psychological suspense and part detective story.”— Chicago Sun-Times

“Pure entertainment from its insidious beginning to its gripping end.”—The Washington Post Book World

“Exceptionally assured and impressive . . . highly entertaining.”—Newsweek

“Awesome . . . immediately thrusts the author into P.D. James’ dark orbit.”—Kirkus Reviews

Great book; sorry it's abridged

Great performance and very good tale. Very disappointed that it isn't the full length version.

Relationships...they are always so complicated.

An ugly, yet riveting mystery that tells stories about human strengths and weaknesses that go beyond the crime being investigated. A bit long, after you know for sure who dunnit and how ugly the crime is. Well performed.

Go With the Paper Version

I really enjoy Elizabeth George's work, but the this audiobook is much too condensed and has poor audio quality.

Love Elizabeth George's writing

I have read many of these books before and now am enjoying revisiting them on Audible. The characters build and become more complex with each story.

abridged version

to much left out of this edition. if it were not Jacobi narrating it would hardly be worth the effort.