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A Great Deliverance  By  cover art

A Great Deliverance

By: Elizabeth George
Narrated by: Derek Jacobi
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Publisher's summary

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

"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)

What listeners say about A Great Deliverance

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    1 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

YUCK, UGH, DOUBLE YUCK!!!

This story started out sad and went downhill. I don't even want to describe it.
I thought the Inspector Lynley series would be good -- it's certainly popular and has been around for a while. However, after listening to this first book in the series, I cannot understand why. The book is well written, but the subject matter and most of the characters in this book are depressing. The details of what happens in the story and why are gruesome and revolting. I won't be listening to any more of this series. In fact, I'm trying to find out how I can delete this book from my Audible library. With all of that said, the narrator was outstanding.

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11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

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.

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11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

The first and best Elizabeth George

This is the book that made me an Elizabeth George fan. It's power and force are in it's treatment of the subject of sexual abuse in a very human, psychologically complex way. Read it first, preferably unabridged.

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11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

beware

this is a two hour thing and not the full eleven hour book I thought I was buying, so difficult to get refunds through Amazon

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Disappointed the Book was Abridged

I didn't look carefully enough at the details & I was surprised this audiobook was so severely abridged. That said, it was well done. The Abridgement tackled the most relevant details but left oh, so much out.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

It was not awful, but I had to slow the speed.

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

Fans of Elizabeth George.

Would you recommend A Great Deliverance to your friends? Why or why not?

No. Too many characters to develop for a short story.

What three words best describe Derek Jacobi’s performance?

OK, pretty good.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

disappointment.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Hate the music

Books are to be read not all sorts of background music story was not bad but the overly loud music wrecks the whole experience

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Deliverance at Slower Speed

I have loved all of Elizabeth George’s Lynley mysteries and can’t believe I am going to criticize Jacobi, but I had to listen to it on .75 speed. Otherwise, it was jarring. O

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Too short. Too simple.

I tend to like books by David Baldacci, John Grisham, Michael Connelly, and Vince Flinn. I was looking forward to Elizabeth George, because I am already done will all of the books by each of these authors. I was very disappointed. I didn't like the plot. I didn't like the characters and Audible will not let me return it, so at the moment I don't like them.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great book; sorry it's abridged

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

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