Payment in Blood

Placing her own stamp on the traditions of Dorothy Sayers and P. D. James, George ( A Great Deliverance ) supports her vividly characterized story of murder and espionage with elements of theatrical life, British class-consciousness and love gone awry. Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley, eighth Earl of Asherton, is sent to Scotland to investigate the murder of playwright Joy Sinclair. Her death had occurred as a company of stage greats, gathered by eminent producer Stuart Rintoul, Lord Stinhurst, was reading through the revised script of her latest play. Lynley's disquiet at being assigned to a case in Scotland is exacerbated when he discovers that his close friend, Lady Helen Clyde, was also on hand, in the company of director Rhys Davis-Jones. Learning that the revised play touched on secrets that nearly all the assembled cast might consider deserving of murder, Lynley struggles to balance peer loyalty and his personal anguish with objective police work. Assisted by fiercely egalitarian Sergeant Barbara Havers and by forensics expert and friend Simon St. James, Lynley forges through a thicket of deceptions, personal and nation-wide, to solve the mysteries of the first murder and one that follows, though not the mysteries of his heart. 50,000 first printing; $50,000 ad/promo. (Sept.)