The Complete Inspector Lynley Mysteries

Enjoy a life of crimes with the decidedly uppercrust Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley (Nathanial Parker, Far from the Madding Crowd) and his partner, the frumpy yet plucky Sergeant Barbara Havers (Sharon Small, About a Boy). Watch in suspense as the pair investigates heinous crimes-and evolves from class-clashing co-workers to an unrivaled detective duo. Includes all 23 mysteries in all six series.

A Great Deliverance - A Great Deliverance introduces a new detective duo: Inspector Thomas Lynley (Nathaniel Parker) and Sergeant Barbara Havers (Sharon Small) from the best-selling mysteries by Elizabeth George. He is suave, sophisticated, and the eighth Earl of Asherton. She is rumpled, resentful, and working class -- with a very low opinion of the highborn. Theirs is a marriage made not in heaven, but in headquarters, prompting tensions that often get in their way as they tackle a baffling decapitation on a wind-swept Yorkshire farm.

Episode 1 - Farmer William Tey has lost his head in his Yorkshire barn. Next to his decapitated corpse police find his traumatized, blood-spattered 16-year-old daughter, Roberta (Rebecca Gallacher), unable or unwilling to talk. The beloved family dog has also been executed on the spot. Lynley (Nathaniel Parker) and Havers (Sharon Small) are sent north to investigate.
Meanwhile, Lynley faces his own trauma: His best friend, forensic scientist Simon Allcourt (Anthony Calf), has just married the brightest of Lynley's many flames, Deborah (Amanda Ryan). Thinking the murder locale is at least a diversion from this heartbreak, Lynley discovers that the newlyweds have picked the area for their honeymoon.
Havers, meanwhile, finds upper-crust cops detestable.

Episode 2 - The investigation leads Lynley and Havers into the seamy side of a tranquil English village, where an unsolved case of infanticide may hold the key to farmer Tey's recent decapitation. The victim had a secret past that provides a host of clues, suspects, and motives.
Though Tey was as godly as a vicar, suspects and motives abound -- from his nephew and heir, Richard (Brendan Coyle), to his estranged wife, Tessa (Denise Black), to his mysterious elder daughter, Gillian (Hannah Storey).

Well-Schooled in Murder - Well-Schooled in Murder takes Lynley down Memory Lane to an elite boarding school much like the one he attended as a youth... only his school didn't feature the ritual slaying of students.
The investigation begins as a missing student case. Lynley is summoned by the boy's housemaster, John Corntel (John Sessions), who happens to be an old school chum. He brings Havers along, knowing that she will cut through the school's smokescreen of pretense and tradition. When the boy turns up dead, Lynley and Havers fear an inside job. The older students not only control the younger ones, they also have a Mafia-like grip on the administration, which is headed by an unctuous prig named Alan Lockwood (Bill Nighy). Then a second boy goes missing and the race is on to find him.

Payment in Blood - Payment in Blood finds Lynley and Havers in a figurative game of Clue on a Scottish estate (in reality, the former home of the late George Harrison).
The victim is a playwright. The weapon is a knife. The perpetrator? Could it be theatre impresario Sir Stuart Stinhurst (Ronald Pickup), owner of the mansion where the murder took place? Or perhaps Robert Gabriel (Idris Elba), leading man in the play written by the victim? Or possibly leading lady Joanna Sydeham (Camilla Power), or her manager-husband, David (Julian Wadham)? Or, worst of all, could it be director Rhys Davies Jones (Jonathan Firth), who is having an affair with Lynley's unrequited sweetheart Lady Helen Clyde (Lesley Vickerage)? Lynley fears it is, and his desperate attempts to separate Helen from Jones strike Havers as a tad unprofessional -- even if the killer is preparing an encore performance.

For the Sake of Elena - For the Sake of Elena shows that all is not well at Cambridge University, where the deaf daughter of a don is discovered dead on a jogging trail.
Elena is her name -- a promiscuous young woman with many admirers, including a pillar of the deaf community Gareth Randolph (David Ellington); lascivious English tutor Dr. Thorsson (Richard Lintern); and family friend Victor Troughton (Will Knightley), to whom Elena was secretly engaged. Her father is eminent historian Dr. Phillip Weaver (Tim Pigott-Smith), an ambitious scholar who abandoned Elena and her mother, Glyn (Selina Cadell), for the young and stylish Justine (Sophie Ward).
But Weaver has recently had an affair with Sarah Gordon (Cherie Lunghi), the famous if burned-out artist who discovered Elena's body. Fortunately, Lynley is an Oxford man and Havers is strictly trade school, which allows them to get to the bottom of a crime that is far from academic.

Missing Joseph - A vicar calling on a single-mom parishioner falls victim to her cooking when she confuses a poisonous root with an edible one. Was it a mistake or murder?
Missing Joseph opens as Reverend Robin Sage has finished a gourmet meal prepared by his parishioner Juliet Spence (Pippa Haywood), a New Age herbalist in a sleepy Lancashire village. The vicar enjoys sleep all right -- The Big Sleep, thanks to a lethal dose of water hemlock, which Spence mistook for wild parsnip. Or so she claims. Arriving on the scene, Lynley and Havers are helped by local policeman Steve Shepherd (Jason Merrells), but they soon discover that Shepherd and Spence are having an affair. Shepherd's attempts to put spurned lover Polly Yarkin (Joanna Dunn), the vicar's housekeeper, in the frame don't wash with Lynley, who is more interested in Juliet's obsessive devotion to her only daughter, Maggie (Charlotte Salt). The big break comes when a photo of the vicar's deceased wife turns up. A presumed victim of suicide, she bears a striking resemblance to someone still alive.

Playing for the Ashes - A sports hero, a scandalous affair and a house in flames compel Lynley to break the rules to smoke out the killer. The unconventional personal life of popular English cricket hero Kenneth Waring (Mark Brighton) is exposed when his body is found asphyxiated in a smoldering cottage belonging to a respected philanthropist. On that very same night, a nearby research facility is torched in the same way. Waring's 16-year-old son unconvincingly confesses to the arson, leaving Lynley to wonder whom the boy is protecting, and why.

In the Presence of the Enemy - The kidnapping of the secret love-child of a liberal Labor minister and conservative tabloid editor provides Lynley and Havers with their most politically sensitive case yet. The 10-year-old daughter of radical Labor Minister Eve Bowen (Sophie Okonedo) is abducted and the ransom note demands that the illegitimate father, tabloid editor Dennis Luxford (James Hazeldine), be revealed. While the politically polarized parents decide what to do, the girl's body is found. When Luxford's young son is snatched, the race is on to find the murderer before another child dies.

A Suitable Vengeance - Lynley's family loyalties are put to the test when he is called in to investigate a brutal murder near his family estate. Lynley returns to his ancestral lands to celebrate his recent engagement to Lady Helen Clyde (Lesley Vickerage), but the celebration is quickly overshadowed by the murder of a shopkeeper in a nearby village. Lynley is initially glad for the distraction, but when his investigation leads him back to his home, Lynley can't ignore the mounting evidence against a member of his own family.

Deception on His Mind - A suspicious death, accusations about racism on the police force and a community up in arms force Lynley and Havers to tread lightly before full-scale riots ignite the streets. Lynley is honeymooning in Mexico when the body of a young Pakistani man is found on a secluded beach near an English seaside resort. The detective assigned to the case, Emily Barlow (Emily Joyce), Havers' friend from police college, is so singularly focused on the guilt of a local firebrand that she jeopardizes the investigation. When Lynley returns from Mexico, Havers must convince him that something even more sinister than murder is going on.

In Pursuit of the Proper Sinner - Lynley's assigned to a double murder, and persuades DCI Webberley to allow Havers onto the case. Young and attractive Nicola Maiden has been bludgeoned to death, while her apparent camping companion, Gerry Cole, has been stabbed. Nicola's father, retired Superintendent in Vice Andy Maiden, is convinced that his daughter is victim of a grudge killing by someone he helped put away.
As they uncover a wealth of dark secrets, Lynley and Havers are led into a murky world of prostitution and revenge in search of the killer's identity.

A Traitor to Memory - Lynley and Havers are called away from DCI Webberley's silver wedding anniversary party when a woman is killed on a quiet London street.
The victim, Eugenie Martin, has been knocked down and driven over several times. The man who found the body, James Pitchley, lives locally and has been detained until he can be ruled out of the investigation. Havers finds an address in Eugenie's car suggesting that she was on her way to visit Pitchley. However, when Lynley and Havers question him, he denies knowing Eugenie and is evasive about his whereabouts that night.
Havers traces Eugenie's ex-husband, Richard, and their son, Gideon, a virtuoso violinist. Neither Richard nor Gideon have seen Eugenie for 30 years, since she left after her daughter, Sophie, was killed by her nanny.
Lynley and Havers are convinced that the key to Eugenie's murder lies in Sophie's death and the pressure is on to find the killer before he or she strikes again.

A Cry for Justice - DC Havers and DC Billy Slaven discover a woman's body. It appears she's committed suicide, but Havers feels something is wrong and calls for assistance from Scenes of Crime officers.
Havers is then called to see Assistant Commissioner Hillier. She assumes she'll be reprimanded, but he commends her action and tells her that the dead woman, Morag MacNichol, was murdered. Hillier assigns her to the case with Lynley.
They both search Morag's flat, but all they find is a large amount of money hidden in a cupboard. The only clue is a sighting of a young man at Morag's flat on the night of the murder.
Lynley believes the answer lies in Morag's personal life, especially when he learns that Morag had recently been contacted by the son she gave up for adoption eighteen years earlier.

If Wishes Were Horses - Lynley and his pregnant wife Helen attend the funeral of Professor Dermot Finnegan. A forensic psychologist and Helen's former mentor, Finnegan was murdered by a car bomb.
Lynley and Havers are assigned to the case and at the funeral, Havers monitors the mourners. They find their first suspect when a car at the funeral turns out to be owned by Peter Stephanopholous, a convicted murderer who Finnegan helped put away. Also at the funeral is a mysterious woman who no one recognizes and who slips away afterwards without talking to anyone.
They go to Finnegan's home to interview Grace, his wife, and Maureen, his ex-wife, who has forced her way into staying with Grace until Finnegan's will is read. Havers searches Finnegan's office and finds a bundle of letters and photographs from women with whom he has had affairs -- including one from Helen.
Helen is eager to be involved with the case but Lynley insists that she should be taking it easy. Despite that, Helen goes through the Finnegan files and finds a love letter from Stephanopholous' wife, Gina. Helen sets off in her car to give the letter to Lynley but on a quiet country road, someone shoots at Helen's car, driving it off the road and into a tree. At the hospital, it's discovered that Helen's baby has died. Helen, unable to cope with the loss of the baby and her deteriorating relationship with Lynley, decides to leave him.
Lynley throws himself into solving the case. With Havers' help, he confronts the murderer -- Tessa Jellicoe, who'd been having a relationship with Finnegan's wife Grace. As events spiral out of control, Grace fires a gun at Tessa, but Havers gets in the way and is accidentally shot herself. Lynley calls for help, but it looks as though he may have lost both of the women closest to him...

In Divine Proportion - It is Havers' first day back at work after being shot, and her first case involves a young woman murdered with a shotgun in rural Suffolk. Though Havers is outwardly stoic, Lynley worries that it will reopen old wounds. When a photograph of the murdered woman arguing with a man is sent to the local police station, and a mysterious word is painted on the wall of the crime scene, it seems that someone connected with the case is trying to send them clues.
It transpires that the victim had only recently moved back to the village. She grew up there, but had left to go to university and had since been living in London. The pub landlord was still infatuated with her, the dead woman's husband knew she was unfaithful to him, and there seems to be a mystery surrounding the suicide of the victim's younger sister. As their investigations continue, the detectives uncover a dark secret that the village has kept hidden for years. In a final confrontation, Havers is held hostage at gunpoint and has to face her fears of being back in the line of fire.

In the Guise of Death - After spending some of her compensation money learning aikido at a retreat in Cornwall, Havers has been invited by Lynley's mother, Lady Asherton, to stay at the estate.
Lynley is also in Cornwall visiting his mother, but avoiding answering any questions about his relationship with Helen. When horse trainer Jim Fenner, who lives on a neighboring estate, is found hanged in his stable, the diversion delays the inevitable questioning.
The victim's money worries point to a verdict of suicide, but Lynley discovers a connection to a local smuggling racket and that Fenner had been drugged with horse anesthetic. Local copper DS Tremayne is very ambitious and hopes Lynley's help will gain him a promotion, but his enthusiasm leads to tragedy when a suspect house is set on fire.
Another lead takes Lynley and Havers into the local horse world, where they come into contact with the local aristocracy, including Lady Sarah Keach, a keen horsewoman and friend of Lynley's mother. Lynley is forced to think about where his future lies -- with the police or running his family estate? The killer may be closer to home than they imagined.

The Seed of Cunning - Inspector Lynley and Detective Sergeant Havers are assigned to a new case back in London, following the discovery of a body floating in the Thames. The victim, Eric Ramsey, was a doorkeeper at the House of Lords. On closer inspection, it appears that he has been savagely beaten, having had his hands tied behind his back. Initially, it looks as if the murder may be connected to Ramsey's gambling debts, but when a Clerk at the House of Lords is also murdered, events seem to point to a wider conspiracy involving stolen documents. Havers sets to work tracing the missing documents, which turn out to be a test report on a missile system.
The detectives suspect that the murders may have been carried out by whoever was looking for the missing report. But they soon realize that they themselves are being followed. Who would benefit from the suppression of the test report? Is it that person who is having Lynley and Havers followed? And will they be able to get to the killer before someone else gets to him?
Meanwhile, Havers goes to a singles night in an attempt to establish a life for herself outside work.

The Word of God - Lynley and Havers are called to Smithfield's Market, where the body of a man has been found frozen inside a meat truck. The victim is carrying a forged British passport and a parchment covered in Arabic script. The conclusion is that he was an illegal immigrant, but was it an accidental death? The page turns out to be part of an immensely valuable ancient golden Koran, more than enough motive for murder.
The victim had also had one of his kidneys removed, and would have been gravely ill as the remaining one was badly diseased. Lynley is showing signs of strain. Predatory lawyer Christine Marshall is pressuring him to start an affair, while Helen has written to him wanting a divorce. It leads him to be far less patient and tactful than usual with DI Brennan of the Immigration Department, who also has an official interest in the case. Through him, the detectives trace the passport forger, and an expert at the British Museum gives a lead to a dealer in ancient Muslim manuscripts.
But as the case progresses and he discovers that the victim's wife Narima is pregnant, Lynley has to ask himself how much he is willing to risk in order to solve the case.

Natural Causes - Since Lynley's arrest and suspension, Havers has been without a partner. Now, she begins a new murder case alongside Detective Inspector Fiona Knight. Lynley unofficially becomes involved in the case, but will his actions jeopardize his efforts to be reinstated?

One Guilty Deed - Lynley, Havers and DC Winston Nkata are close to bringing down organized crime boss Michael Shand, but then their informant Roger Pollard is shot dead. The ensuing investigation suggests there is more to the shooting than meets the eye.

Chinese Walls - Lynley and Havers are catapulted into a bizarre world of Internet vice and family secrets when they investigate the brutal death of Emily Proctor, an aspiring lawyer. Lynley, meanwhile, rekindles his relationship with his estranged wife, Helen.

In the Blink of an Eye - Lynley and Havers investigate the death of a former war photographer, now paparazzi Peter Rooker. When Lynley's wife Helen assists in the case, a tragic trail of events is set in motion.

Limbo - As Lynley still struggles with a great personal tragedy, he's drawn back in to the 15-year-old unsolved abduction of his godson. A second shock occurs, and this time Lynley is at the center of the investigation. Can Lynley's name be cleared?

Know Thine Enemy - Lynley and Havers try to solve the murder of one schoolgirl and the disappearance of another. Is a serial killer on the loose in suburban London? What is the mother of one of the girls hiding? And who is the mysterious redhead seen with both girls before they disappeared?