Product Description

Inspectors lynley & havers are back in 4 intriguing new contemporary mysteries. This picks up where the last story ended - with havers shot in the line of duty & lynley estranger from his wife helen. How will these traumas affect their ability to do their jobs? Studio: Wgbh Wholesale Release Date: 10/17/2006 Starring: Nathaniel Parker Sharon Small Run time: 344 minutes

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #29098 in DVD
• Released on: 2006-10-17
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 4
• Running time: 344 minutes

Amazon.com
The aristocratic Inspector Lynley and working-class Detective Sergeant Havers are a most improbable detective team with a definite knack for solving difficult crimes. Based on the Lynley and Havers characters from Elizabeth George's Inspector Lynley Mysteries, this fourth Inspector Lynley Mysteries set begins where the third leaves off, just after Lynley and his wife Helen have separated following the loss of their baby and as Havers is returning to work after having been shot in the line of duty. "In Divine Proportion" finds the pair deep in the countryside where they must sort out a host of small-town relationships and piece together a string of seemingly disparate clues in order to bring two murderers to justice. Lynley and Havers are off on a brief holiday to visit Lynley's mother Lady Asherton in "In the Guise of Death" when an apparent suicide in a neighboring stable draws Lynley back to work. Eventually, a smuggling ring that includes some most unexpected players is revealed. It seems that even the House of Lords is not immune to fraud and murder in "The Seed of Cunning," but the question that haunts Lynley is whether its members are exempt from the legal ramifications of their actions. Lynley's pursuit of justice without regard for protocol and self-restraint in the face of illegal immigrants, organ trading, and the search for an immensely valuable ancient Koran may quite possibly prove his downfall in "The Word of God." These PBS Inspector Lynley Mysteries are suspenseful, thought-provoking, and thoroughly engaging. --Tami Horiuchi

Customer Reviews

"Who says we cope?"
Philip Larkin wrote that there are two kinds of people: "book Bond" lovers and "film Bond" lovers, and that these two warring camps of James Bond fans can't get along because they admire completely different Bonds. I think fans of Elizabeth George's Insector Linley books may feel the same about this cracking BBC series, but I wouldn't know. I'm too enamored of these disparate characters, whose warts are becoming particularly prominent as their partership deepens.

Kudos to the screenwriters, who muscled up George's books, and drew out the underlying Havers/Lynley Non-Romance, the dead-ended pratfalls of which are beginning to take their toll on them--and others. Lynley in particular needs a holiday, but he won't take one because--well, because that's how he deals. Bad move.

Nathaniel Parker and Sharon Small make this could-have-been-wretched series so much their own it's breathtaking. They play it absolutely straight. Fans have watched Tom Lynley cope with Barbara's snarkey, jealous, defensive jabs, and now they'll watch Barbara come into her own as Tom turns brittle after his baby's death. It's all very melodramatic, but having been with them since the beginning, we are rooting for them more than I'd care to admit,even if Tom has to spend some time in the pokey. Oops!

Fans can rejoice: #4 is as good--if better--than #1-3. And as for #5: well, surely at some point, Tom and Barb will split a pint, turn on a bar or two of the fire, put their feet up, and talk. But if they do, this wonderful, atmospheric series will be over.

MATURING
The "Inspector Lynley Mysteries" series is currently one of my favorites in this genre (murder/mysteries) I own all of the seasons including, of course, this season four. It truly has gotten better and better with each consecutive season. Season, four, to me is the very best so far. The primary reason for the aforesaid feeling is that Inspector Lynley's sidekick, Barbara Havers as played by Sharon Small is maturing into a wonderfully astute detective. I've always admired the character of Havers with her "salt of the earth" wisdom and common sense; however, in season four, she really has come into her own--very wise, very knowledgeable and physically very beautiful. In other words, she holds her own with the character of Inspector Lynley as played marvelously by Nathaniel Parker; plus she has become an indispensable partner to him and perhaps a future love interest (Thank god, that dreary wife that he's so in love with has sort of disappeared). In the episode `The Seed of Cunning" Havers proves her worth. That episode is "nail biting" good!

Yes there is the preverbal "cliff hanger". Lynley, this time is the one in trouble!

I loved Season four of this series--it is sooooooo good!

"Class"y Brit Mystery
The Lynley series is satisfyingly "safe" yet interesting. The stories are good enough. The production values and acting are excellent.
The formula is based on the class differences as they express themselves in England. Lynley is from an extravagantly wealthy family. He is the top dog and bosses around his equally bright partner, Havers. Havers is below middle class. They are both hard workers with tragic flaws around opposite sex relationships as well as taking risks in their jobs. Yet, because Lynley is an upper class male bossing around a lower class intuitive female [Havers] it appears that they have a working relationship that substitutes, poorly, for marriage. The working relationship is similar to the detective & sargent in the Morse series.
Most the stories often take place surrounded by wealth, like the Colombo & Morse series'.
Plots are fluffy, safe, & self-aware. My wife and I like to watch it before we go to sleep. It's interesting enough to keep us up and tame enough to be our "nightcap".
The tone is similar to the Morse Mystery series...and is much darker than American mysteries like Colombo, Rockford, and Murder She Wrote.