A Traitor to Memory by Elizabeth George

Paperback front cover

Read this one in August although published in 2001 it had been languishing on my stack of to be read books.  A good mystery but 662 pages, a tome as George often produces.  In this one a 28 year old violinist protege, extraordinaire, Gideon Davies, suddenly loses his memory of music and  all ability to play the violin which he had mastered at 5 years of age.  He suffers from a traumatic form of amnesia  shich can only be cured by investigating what he can remember.  With the guidance of a doctor Gideon journals what he can remember and flashes back  to the name of a woman, Sonia.  His father has poured his life into promoting Gideon.  The dysfunctional family goes over 3 generation and includes the death of Gideon's baby sister long ago.   Meantime there are other characters weaving in and out and  the mysterious killings of seemingly unrelated people,  run over by autos.

 The author weaves a readable saga,  with multitudes of characters and stories related to each.  Seemingly separate but all will be interlinked. For example,  on pg. 485, the reappearance of a character Katie leads Gideon to a conversation about Katja.  Katie  had not been mentioned nor  featured since the first chapter at the beginning of the book.   In the midst of the book pages 369-370 I noted that I disliked the switching back and forth between characters and stories.  Malcolm Webberly has just been run down walking his dog Alf and then the tale switches back to Gideon.  Still it is well written and there are many passages worth noting.  

Pg 132, about failure, "  "Sometimes you fail.  You don't intend to.  You don't even contemplate failure.  But it happens.  It comes out of nowhere and it takes you by surprise and before you have a chance to stop even to react in some useless way, it's on you.  Failure."    

Pg 161,  "life wasn't a continuum of events, although it wore the guise of exactly that.  Instead, it was actually a carousel.  In infancy one mounted a galloping pony and started out on a journey during which one assumed that circumstances would change as the expedition continued.  But the  truth of life was that it was an endless repetition of what one had already experienced...round and round and up and down on that pony.  And unless one dealt with whatever challenges one was meant to deal with along the route, those challenges appeared again and again in one form or another till the end of one's days."   

Page 571, "left with her thoughts, those mischievous companions of one's solitude."  

Overall I enjoyed the tome, but at times I felt it could have speeded along.  Masterful writing none the less.  I give this 4 ****

Careless in Red by Elizabeth George

Never a disappointment to read an Elizabeth George mystery, crime saga and this one published in 2008, 621 pages following Chief Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley of Scotland yard as he attempts to walk off the grief from his wife's death  along the Cornwall coast was  my choice for this summer. Discovery of a body draws Lynley out of his dismal disguise of the drifter on the seacoast as local Detective  Bea Hannaford enlists his reluctance assistance. True to her  other marvelous crime sagas, Elizabeth  George weaves a cast of characters mixed with individual dramas that enfolded me page by page.  When I think of surfing and the sea I think of Hawaii or perhaps southern California, so to imagine that sport and related commercial activity  in Cornwall was an eye opener to me.  Besides the intrigue her writing is superb  with  her adherence to  true English style, using the Brit spelling for many words and Brit sayings.  It's one way she is authentic, such as the  term "windscreen wipers" instead of windshield wipers.  I was introduced to Elizabeth George novels way back in my career days at Health Services by Sherrie Pittman, a colleague in county government  and so every time I settle into one I remember Sherrie who in turn discovered these in search for deep mysteries in the British style.  Truly a suspenseful writer who weaves multiple characters through to the end, George has another  stunning ending that twists along rocky shores and washes in and out like the waves of the sea tide.  .

Marvelous philosophical phrases abound throughout-- pages 52-53  "The constable was young,  probably  less than 25.  He thought he knew the ways of the world but he had no clue, absolutely not the slightest idea what was there and what could happen.  He didn't know there was no way to prepare and no way to control.  At a gallop, life came at you on horseback and there you were with two options only.  You either climbed up or you were mowed down.  Try to find the middle ground and you failed."  It amazes me  to find horsemanlike imagery in this setting but that is the excellence of a George novel. 

Pg. 61,  " This was a part of the world where you were a visitor until you had become a permanent resident and you were a newcomer until your family had lived in the place for two generations."  This could describe where we live today, so unlike melting pots of US urban coasts.

Pg 343.." The devil of young people.....They take a decision, they make a mistake, and if no one rushes like the fire brigade to save them from the outcome, they learn from the whole experience.  That's the job of the dad--or the granddad.--to keep them from learning what they got to learn, mate.  What they got to do to help work out the end of the story...." as Jago consuls a father about dealing with his son "..agreement was a process of intellect.  It had nothing to do with heart...."

Pg. 589.."Pictures were the things of happy memories.  They were also the instruments one used retrospectively to avoid the truth...."

Pg. 596.."..trying to stay one step ahead of loss didn't prevent loss from happening, did it?"

Pg. 598 .." Things change.....even when it had seemed to him that nothing was ever going to change at all.  He'd wanted a career in the Royal Navy to escape what he'd seen as a life of unfaltering drudgery,  but the fact of the matter was that the details of that life had altered in minute ways, which led to big ways, which led to life not being drudgery at all if one just paid attention."

This book is a 5 ***** entertaining, suspenseful, educational,  and philosophical