I've read a couple of Elizabeth George's Inspector Lynley books and after the second one I gave up: George's style is to get into the heads of everyone, which is fine, but those monologues go on and on and are often not relevant to the plot. I found her treatment of Havers, which apparently is supposed to provide comic relief, precious and time-wasting. The books are overwritten, but who am I to argue with her popularity.
The TV show dispenses of most of the interminable inner character monologues (of course). Yay. I know there are those who complain about Lynley and Havers being miscast, but I don't care about that-I think Nathaniel Parker is great as the principled, but emotional detective inspector who is quite inept with the opposite sex; Sharon Small's Havers is smart and insecure, mouthy, sensitive-well played. The characters are fleshed out through the action for the most part, and the glimpses into their personal lives are just enough. And the stories with their characters and twists and turns are interesting and moving-and not overly sentimental.
Sadly, in the latter seasons the show tried to imitate the popular American CSI high-tech procedurals. Little by little the producers worked on Sharon Small to be more attractive and less rough. Car chases entered the picture and subtlety started to disappear. As much as I loved the show, I'm glad it stopped when it did. It became too much of a carbon copy of the American stuff. (Mind you, I loved the original Law & Order procedural, which shared the same restraint as the Lynley Mysteries.)
The TV show dispenses of most of the interminable inner character monologues (of course). Yay. I know there are those who complain about Lynley and Havers being miscast, but I don't care about that-I think Nathaniel Parker is great as the principled, but emotional detective inspector who is quite inept with the opposite sex; Sharon Small's Havers is smart and insecure, mouthy, sensitive-well played. The characters are fleshed out through the action for the most part, and the glimpses into their personal lives are just enough. And the stories with their characters and twists and turns are interesting and moving-and not overly sentimental.
Sadly, in the latter seasons the show tried to imitate the popular American CSI high-tech procedurals. Little by little the producers worked on Sharon Small to be more attractive and less rough. Car chases entered the picture and subtlety started to disappear. As much as I loved the show, I'm glad it stopped when it did. It became too much of a carbon copy of the American stuff. (Mind you, I loved the original Law & Order procedural, which shared the same restraint as the Lynley Mysteries.)