1/5 Description mislead, only one episode NOT FOUR as listed!
  by J. Townsend (Chico, CA)
This was a disapointment to say the least, I was already to sit and enjoy FOUR episodes as shown on the box and the description area and there was only the FIRST one!! And I DID re-read the description before I had purchased it!

The video was placed wrong side around and the knob was broken in the container to hold it in place...

I won't purchase from Once Sold Tales again!

Otherwise Lynley is good as usual.

1/5 Inspector Lynley Mysteries Set 1
  by Frederick E. Miller (Schenectady, New York)
After loving Inspector Morse and Inspector Jack Frost, we thought we'd try another British Mystery and bought Lynley. This is horrible soap opera and we were very disappointed. Couldn't watch the last disc it was so bad. If you like wierd soap operas get it. Otherwise save your money.
Fred in New York

4/5 A rare occurrence of the film version trumping the book
  by Smeddley
I read one of Elizabeth George's books (For the Sake of Elena) and it happens to be one in the first set of Lynley episodes. I was not overly impressed with the book, to be honest, and was a bit wary about watching the show. But all of the issues I had with the books were neatly and wonderfully resolved with the magic of television.

I never had a problem with the storyline or plot of the book - the mysteries are good and solid and translate well into television. My issues were with the writing (descriptive, not dialogue) and mostly with the character of Havers. I think you're supposed to like her in the books, or at least not hate her, but the mental image the descriptions brought to my mind were revolting. She just seems completely unlikeable and annoying, and I really could not understand her interactions with a lot of the other characters. Even her physical description was hard for me to wrap my head around.

In the series, though, the questions about her appearance are put to rest and she seems a lot less irritating. The character on the show is a little offbeat and prickly, but in a likable way. Perhaps if I've kept reading the books I would have eventually come to like her character, but from the first episode of the show I enjoyed her and Lynley and their interactions.

I still probably won't read any more of the books, but will definitely be checking out the rest of the series. Anyone who likes British police/detective shows (Midsomer Murders, Hamish MacBeth, Murder in Suburbia, Foyle's War, etc) should check this one out.

4/5 Code of Silence
  by Bentley (USA)
"We live by codes, Lynley thought. We call them our morals, our standards, our values, our ethics, as if they were part of our genetic make up. But they are only behaviours that we have learned from our society, and there are times to act in defiance of them, to fly in the face of their conventions because it is right to do so."

- Inspector Lynley (Well Schooled in Murder)

The setting of Elizabeth George's Inspector Lynley mysteries is England and this story is set at a private boys school called Bredgar Chambers School. The code of silence may be reminiscent of the military; but it is alive and well at this boys school where a murder of a 13 year old boy takes place. Why was a boy from a working class family murdered and who was culpable is the case that Inspector Thomas (Tommy) Lynley of Scotland Yard is called by his former boyhood friend to solve. Lynley is played by Nathanial Parker; and is a rather posh inspector who is also an earl. His sidekick is played by Sharon Small (Sergeant Havers) and she is from a diametrically opposed background from a working class family. She is not terribly good with authority and has a bit of a chip on her shoulder.

Some of the same actors from The History Boys are cast in some of the roles and the acting is very well done.

Though only boys, there is the grim undercurrent of rules being broken and bad behavior being covered up leading to the ultimate cover up - a murder of a 13 year old boy.

The cover ups unravel and more than one death occurs in the sinister image conscious environment of this upper class English boarding school; possibly more concerned with its image, reputation and funding versus uncovering the cause of death of one of its students; who as it turned out marched to a different drummer and followed his principles and conscience; because these were his standards and his personal codes.

Interesting character study of Lynley created by American mystery writer Elizabeth George.

Recommended B+

Bentley 2008

5/5 a delicate character study
  by Anne Parker (ellensburg, was)
This series has great writing. However, a lot of the plot is what Hitchcock would call the "maguffin" -- the 'whatever' on which to hang the script.

The real center of this series is the contrast of class. The two central characters have an unexpressed love for each other which subtly supercedes and cancels out any other relationships that they try to form. It is not a love of bump and grind, but rather a deep respect, a reaching out past class distinctions, and a primary need to see each other every day. Occasionally one will reach out to the other, only to be gently rebuffed. The excellent writing allows them barriers which they tentatively reach across.

I watched the whole thing, amazed by the subtlety in which the two characters hang on to this fabric.