I've been conflicted on this one. I love Elizabeth George's Thomas Lynley mysteries, have never listened to one, but have read them all. I'd been reluctant to read this one based on the jacket material, so opted to listen as an option.
If you're an Elizabeth George fan, this one is problematic because those characters we know and love and have followed for years make an appearance only in the last few pages of the book, though the dramatic foreshadowing prepares you exactly for what is going to happen.
George is just too heavy-handed with this one. Too unremittingly bleak, and also too didactic. Again and again we hear various characters talking about problems with "the youth of today." They harp on the desire for a rush of sudden fame, bad work ethic -- and the harping is not worked in elegantly, it becomes stulfyingly, speechifyingly overwrought.
This book is, perhaps, so much more slender than the typical George book because she tells and tells and tells vs. showing.
All that being said, I still give this three stars because she does create plot tension, not an easy thing to do given that the book opens with telling us that the "she" in question, Lynley's wife Helen, is going to be shot (so not giving away any surprises here). And the characters are compelling. But its hard to wallow in this world, as brief as the sojourn is, and no one likes to listen to lectures, especially when they're as ill-disguised as these are. At end, if you love George, read it or listen to it; if you haven't read George, don't start with this one. Start with any of her other Lynley mysteries, this one is a trifling by comparison.