The Inspector Lynley Mysteries (TV Series) A Traitor to Memory (2004) User Reviews

I loved it.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 9/10 · 11 May 2021]

Inspector Lynley is assigned to a case of hit and run, as he and Havers investigate, all manner of secrets an lies are unearthed.

I genuinely don't know what the other reviewers on here watched, for me, this is possibly the best episode I have seen up until this point. I've read the book, and found it really rather tedious, this adaptation built on the story.

It's a clever, multi layered mystery, with so much happening, so many strands, including Tommy and Helen's news, Tommy's strained relationship with Havers, and of course the knots being tied by the powers that be.

I loved the opening, it developed well, and concluded very well, I thought this was excellent, it keeps you guessing until the very end. 9/10.

I guess everyone hated this series, or at least this episode

[blanche-2 · 7/10 · 14 September 2012]

I am a fan of the Inspector Lynley Mysteries because I love Nathaniel Parker. As with any series of this kind, some episodes are better than others. I understand perfectly that if you a fan of the books, you are probably not going to like this series.

Since I haven't read the books, I have to take the stories and the characters as they are on the screen.

In "A Traitor to Memory," from the third season, Lynley and Havers are called upon to investigate a hit and run - in fact, Lynley is pulled out of his superior officer's anniversary party. The case soon leads the detectives to a crime that occurred twenty years earlier, a gifted violinist, his father, and his teacher-manager.

Havers, meanwhile, has decided to resign in a month and is angry with Lynley because she believes he didn't fight for her, and that's why she was demoted. On the home front, Lynley gets some surprising news.

In reading some of the comments, whether or not I've read the books, I have to agree with one thing. Lesley Vickerage is not right for the role of Helen, and I wasn't surprised to read that her description doesn't match what's in the books. Here's this gorgeous, hunky guy, an aristocrat, and Helen is totally wrong for him. Not to mention, I can't believe they got married! They were always fighting and separating. I haven't liked her from the first time I saw her.

Anyway, now that that rant is over, I enjoyed this episode. It was a very intricate mystery, and while I agree the scene with Helen becoming angry with Lynley was stupid, I think it fit the TV Helen - it's just the type of thing she would do.

Without giving the story away, I had one problem with the actual story. The violinist's reaction to the piece he had to play at the concert - if you're a musician preparing for a concert, you rehearse each piece hundreds of times. I find it odd that throughout the rehearsal process, absolutely nothing clicked in this guy until he got on stage. Don't buy it.

Otherwise, I enjoyed this.

Inconsistent

[AJ_Blanc · 7/10 · 22 May 2022]

I'm enjoying the show but I am starting to see why it only lasted six season/series, without reading any of the books. I was a bit put off by the ending of season two, but not so much that I wouldn't carry on for at least one more season. While the show is thankfully delaying a return to the status quo longer than I expected, Lynley seems to have reversed his attitude from the previous episode.

The season opener has Tommy being very short with a demoted Havers; throwing chain of command in her face at every encounter and undoing all the comradery they had built up over eight episodes. Granted, Havers defied him at pretty much every turn but it was still incredibly out of character for him, and for writing an ongoing police procedural. Here, things seemed practically back to normal and rank didn't appear to matter to him because he didn't like the DS on the case. Also, he finally revealed to Barbara that her demotion was in lieu of being fired (a tidbit that was kept from her for no logical reason), yet nobody has mentioned that her actions saved his life as well as her neighbors'.

This episode in particular was actually quite good, albeit fairly predictable. There were interesting twists and turns, allowing the evidence to guide their inquiries, along with the notion of a coverup. One thing that stood out to me however is Lynley kept counting down the days for Havers' resignation, despite him taking letter back within minutes of her handing it to the Superintendent, who didn't even open it in the first place (though he did suspect what it was). If his goal was to convince her to stay on, reminding her of how many days she had left probably wasn't the best way to do that, especially after the Super died since he was the one holding up her reinstatement anyway.

Kept guessing until the end

[safenoe · 9/10 · 26 October 2016]

This is the second episode of the third season of Inspector Lynley, and here Helen (Lesley Vickerage) breaks the news to her husband that she is pregnant. Inspector Lynley is of course excited, but I think the joy of being a father is somewhat dampened by Havers submitting her letter of resignation to DSI Webberley at his wedding anniversary party. It just happens the DSI's wife is played by Diana Hoddinott, who played Annie Hacker in Yes Minister and then Yes Prime Minister.

Inspector Lynley and Havers are called upon to "get the right result" in a hit and run (actually murder) of Eugenie Martin, and they uncover an affair that DSI Webberley had awhile ago with Eugenie.

More murders ensue, and the ending is quite horrifying in many respects, especially when the murderers are revealed, and why.

I felt sorry for Katja Wolff (Joanna Kanska), the innocent au pair who took the fall for a murder all those years ago, and after being released from prison finds herself toiling away in a laundromat in a part of London where the residents of the multi-story council flats that would solidly vote Labour or the Respect Party if you know what I mean.

Sexy Dumb

[tedg · 2 December 2006]

Let's face it, it doesn't matter what the author intended when you encounter these BBC produced projects. That's try with the classics, as we've seen. But its true as well of the so-called mystery series, whose only common thread is that there be a murderer.

George was a quite different sort of writer than the old fashioned mystery writers who were used as the original template. She and few of her peers used the device of detection, and the engagement of the reader as detective to do some detecting into the nature of the human soul. The mystery was not so much about tracking down the killer because we KNEW that would happen and if we didn't figure it out, someone would.

So she hijacked the fold, the position we held in the story as well as out, and gave us characters for us to question the way they were questioning the world around them. The whole point was the nature of these people, foremost the detective and his assistant.

Its a different world than Wimsey and Poirot. Now I don't care if George's frumpy, self-destructive woman is turned into cute, sexy gal. But I do care that the whole notion of detecting the psyche is tossed because it doesn't fit a rigid format.

I don't care that they hosed the story all around so long as it is better than what George wrote, or at least preserves some of the intriguing dynamics. Or if not, at least I expect it to be minimally engaging as these procedurals can be.

But it isn't. The story is horridly dull in this episode. And the characters too.

Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.

Good story, but Havers was just irritating

[preppycuber · 6/10 · 15 March 2020]

I liked the story, the turn of events, but this seemed like an episode the sole intention of which was to show that Havers is relentless and smart. It was extremely irritating to see Havers repeatedly defying Lynley's orders and getting away with it. The story had lots of potential, but did not present itself as it should have been.

Disappointing

[geekygurl · 3/10 · 27 August 2006]

*Spoilers contained within* I am a great fan of Elizabeth George's books, the source of the material for the Inspector Lynley series. Being a reader and an avid television watcher/movie goer, I'm accustomed to the liberties that screenwriters take with source material. This has to be one of the worst adaptations of novel to film I have seen. First, the characters are completely wrong. I can handle the casting of Inspector Lynley, but come on! Havers and Helen are so totally wrong! Havers is overweight, wears red cross trainers, rumpled clothes, has a chopped up haircut she has done herself; and Helen is supposed to be beautiful, cool, calm and a fashion icon! Neither character even resembles the characters George crafted in her series. The HOUSE is even totally wrong! Couldn't these adapters give an homage to any aspect of the characters the author so finely wrought? The way Helen reacts to Tommy after Malcolm Webberly has been (ultimately) fatally injured is just so wrong on so many levels... Can *you* imagine throwing a hissy fit on your hubby when his boss has just been serially run down by a murderer? I mean, this story was just wrong on every level.

Had I never read any Elizabeth George books, these adaptations might have sufficed as treacle for television mystery lovers, but for devotees of George's books, they provided no satisfaction at all.

Ouch! I've just read this book

[egham1 · 3/10 · 11 June 2020]

The book is 800 pages of intricate plots with MANY more people and/or suspects than this episode. It is so different from the book that it is a travesty. Watch this and then read the book (or vice versa). It is not the same story!

The Lynley mysteries are bland.

[wimsattm · 2/10 · 23 May 2008]

Candidly, I found all of the Inspector Lynley mysteries substandard as compared with the mysteries based on books by such fine authors as P. D. James. Nathaniel Parker is too androgynous for my tastes, and Lesley Vickerage simply cannot act. For what it's worth, I didn't particularly like Catherine Russell either. The book by Elizabeth George that I read, George's comments in an interview, and the reactions of people who watched the entire Lynley series before it was canceled suggest that I am not too far off in my judgment. Finally, as at least one other viewer has remarked, viewers should not expect the BBC's film productions to equal the excellent of George's books. Film in general is an inferior medium to print, at least in the hands of a fine writer like George.