Elizabeth George


Susan Elizabeth George is an American writer of mystery novels.
She is a great Anglophile, and her best known [|series of novels] feature Inspector Thomas Lynley of London's Metropolitan Police. The 22nd book in the series was published in September 2025. The first 11 were adapted for television by the BBC as earlier episodes of The Inspector Lynley Mysteries. A later, separate four-part series entitled Lynley to be shown on BBC One began filming in 2024, starring Leo Suter and Sofia Barclay.

Early life

Elizabeth George was born in Warren, Ohio, the second child of Anne and Robert Edwin George. She has an older brother, author Robert Rivelle George. Her mother was a nurse, and her father a manager for a conveyor company. The family moved to the San Francisco Bay Area when she was 18 months old. She has described the family as "quite poor" and with little formal education, but recounts that her mother gave her an old Remington typewriter, and she began writing at the age of 7. She said: "I have always felt compelled to write. When I began reading the Little Golden Books as a 7-year-old, I knew that I wanted to write one, too. I wrote tiny stories like that in the beginning." She has named Anne of Green Gables as one of the literary influences of her childhood.
She received an Associate of Arts in 1969 from Foothill Community College in Los Altos Hills, California, a Bachelor of Arts in 1970 from the University of California, Riverside, a Master of Science in counseling and psychology in 1979 from the California State University, Fullerton and later attended the University of California, Berkeley.
She received an honorary doctorate in humane letters from Cal State University Fullerton in 2004 and was awarded an honorary Masters in Fine Arts from the Northwest Institute of Literary Arts in 2010.

Career

1975-1987 She taught English in high schools in Orange County, California.
George wrote three crime novels before being accepted for publication.
1988-1990 She taught creative writing at colleges in Orange County, California. She then gave up teaching and become a full-time writer.
Her first published novel, A Great Deliverance, introduces the upper-class Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley of Scotland Yard and his working-class partner Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers. When asked in an interview why she chose to create a titled hero, she spoke of the freedom of being a debut novelist, saying: "I could do anything, you see, because when I started I never thought it would be published."
Since 1988 George has published 21 more Inspector Lynley mysteries, four young adult novels in the Whidbey Island series, three collections of short stories and two self-help books for writers. She names the author John Fowles as her main literary influence.
She established the Elizabeth George Foundation, a grant for unpublished and emerging writers, in 1997.
George has taught creative writing seminars in the US, Canada and the UK.

Personal life

George married Ira Jay Toibin in 1971 and they divorced in 1995. George is currently married to retired firefighter Tom McCabe. She has spoken of her struggle with depression, saying: "Happiness is an inside job - it takes a long time to learn that." She moved from Huntington Beach, California to Whidbey Island, Washington.

Reception

George has spoken of being a great Anglophile since her first visit to Britain in 1966, and of watching UK TV shows and reading books by UK novelists to "pick up the syntax of British speech." She has been praised for the authenticity of her portrayal of "the nuances, class system, language, humour and habits of the British," although not all critics have been in agreement. The Times crime critic Marcel Berlins has described her as "an exasperating writer, insists on perpetuating a police procedure that hasn’t existed for decades, is not good on social mores and her dialogue often reveals a tin ear." Critics have commented adversely on the length and complexity of her novels whilst acknowledging the satisfying nature of the read.

Awards

A Great Deliverance: Winner: Agatha Award for Best First Novel ; 1989 Anthony Award for Best Debut Novel ; Grand Prix de Littérature Policière. Nominated: Edgar Award in 1988.

Works

Inspector Lynley

  • 1988: A Great Deliverance
  • 1989: Payment in Blood
  • 1990: Well-Schooled in Murder
  • 1991: A Suitable Vengeance
  • 1992: For the Sake of Elena
  • 1992: Missing Joseph
  • 1993: Playing for the Ashes
  • 1996: In the Presence of the Enemy
  • 1997: Deception on His Mind
  • 1999: In Pursuit of the Proper Sinner
  • 2001: A Traitor to Memory
  • 2003: A Place of Hiding
  • 2005: With No One as Witness
  • 2006: What Came Before He Shot Her
  • 2008: Careless in Red
  • 2010: This Body of Death
  • 2012: Believing the Lie
  • 2013: Just One Evil Act
  • 2015: A Banquet of Consequences
  • 2018: The Punishment She Deserves
  • 2022: Something to Hide
  • 2025: A Slowly Dying Cause

    Whidbey Island Saga

  • 2012: The Edge of Nowhere
  • 2013: The Edge of the Water
  • 2015: The Edge of the Shadows
  • 2016: The Edge of the Light

    Short story collections

  • 2001: The Evidence Exposed
  • 2002: I, Richard
  • 2004: ''A Moment on the Edge: 100 Years of Crime Stories by Women''

    Nonfiction

  • 2004: Write Away
  • 2020: ''Mastering the Process: From Idea to Novel''

    External

  • at Goodreads
Category:1949 births
Category:20th-century American novelists
Category:20th-century American women novelists
Category:21st-century American novelists
Category:21st-century American women novelists
Category:Agatha Award winners
Category:American mystery writers
Category:American thriller writers
Category:Anthony Award winners
Category:Living people
Category:Novelists from Ohio
Category:People from Warren, Ohio
Category:University of California, Riverside alumni
Category:American women mystery writers
Category:American women thriller writers
Category:Writers from San Francisco