> Skip to content
  • Published: 15 April 2008
  • ISBN: 9780553385496
  • Imprint: Bantam Dell
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 688
  • RRP: $39.99

Playing for the Ashes




NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “Those who haven’t discovered Elizabeth George . . . should rush to read Playing for the Ashes.”—Us

“The story begins with my father, actually, and the fact that I’m the one who’s answerable for his death. It was not my first crime, as you will see, but it is the one my mother couldn’t forgive.”

Acclaimed author Elizabeth George reveals the even darker truth behind this startling confession in Playing for the Ashes, a rich tale of passion, murder, and love in which Inspector Thomas Lynley and Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers once again find themselves embroiled in a case where nothing—and no one—is really what it seems. Intense, suspenseful, and brilliantly written, Playing for the Ashes is “a treasure” (Cosmopolitan).

  • Published: 15 April 2008
  • ISBN: 9780553385496
  • Imprint: Bantam Dell
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 688
  • RRP: $39.99

About the author

Elizabeth George

Elizabeth George's first novel, A Great Deliverance, was honoured with the Anthony and Agatha Best First Novel awards in America and received the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière in France. That was followed by the critically acclaimed Payment in Blood and then Well-Schooled in Murder, which was awarded the prestigious German prize for international mystery fiction, the MIMI, in 1990. Her later novels are the highly acclaimed A Suitable Vengeance, For the Sake of Elena, Missing Joseph, Playing for the Ashes and In the Presence of the Enemy. Elizabeth George divides her time between Huntington Beach, California, and London.

Praise for Playing for the Ashes

"Engrossing. . . Although George is an American, she has made the English mystery her own over the course of the last decade." -The Orlando Sentinel

"Ms. George can do it all, with style to spare." -- The Wall Street Journal

"Ms. George proves that the classiest crime writers are true novelists." -- The New York Times

penguin pop image
penguin pop image