Lynley’s back

American author delivers her 21st Inspector Lynley British mystery

Writing teachers say, “Write what you know.” Elizabeth George, author of the Inspector Lynley series of British mysteries and a writing teacher herself, disagrees.

“For me it was write about what you love and want to learn more about,” the novelist says during a video call from a writing retreat in Santa Barbara, California. “Writing what I know, I would’ve had a really short career.”

Something to Hide, the 21st Inspector Lynley novel, debuts this month, and while there is some witty banter, it tackles serious themes: female genital mutilation, abuse and the power of women.

George, who was born in Ohio and raised in California, has always been an anglophile.

“My love for England [started] shortly before the Beatles came to the United States,” she explains. “A young girl was adopted by a family in Mountain View, where I lived, and she was from Manchester, and she and I became pretty good friends.”

Her friend’s stories of life in England rubbed off on George. In the mid-’60s, she was finally able to visit when London was in the middle of a pop culture renaissance—miniskirts, Carnaby Street, Michael Caine, British rock—and it cemented her passion for the country.

Coupled with her love of writing, it seemed only natural that she would concoct a quintessentially British mystery series. The first Inspector Lynley novel was introduced in 1988 and, early on, George realized it was going to take more visits to England to get her settings and stories right.

“I usually do two trips per book,” she says. “To take a particular area of England and explore that area as intimately as I can, not looking at places that tourists go to, but the places that I’ve read about that sound intriguing, that offer me elements of story.”

Not knowing enough about policing in the U.K. at first, she went to the source.

“I would stop policemen on the street and ask them questions, and they were very helpful,” she explains. “I got my first actual ‘in’ with the police when I was in Cambridge and I was doing a book that was going to be set in the university. I needed to know exactly what happens when a university student is murdered. So I went to the police station and just walked in and said, ‘I need to speak to a detective.’ ”

George explained what she was doing and that she hadn’t exactly murdered anyone, and was told to put her request in writing. She returned to her hotel room and did just that, then delivered it to the police station. They called her in for a meeting that evening. She has since developed contacts she can call with questions, and the development of the internet has made research easier.

Asked if she ever considered moving to England, George says, “It’s actually easier for me to write about a place if I don’t live there, as I can see the telling details more easily.”

George vows she will “continue writing [Lynley novels] until the story of all of the main characters has been told.”

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