The inhabitants of Keldale are a colorful lot. It seems even stranger that Roberta's older sister, Gillian, would run away from home at the age of sixteen never to be heard from again. It is strange then that Teys' young wife Tessa would abandon him and their two daughters shortly after Roberta's birth. It seems that William Teys was someone who was well-liked and respected in his community.

After checking into Keldale Lodge, however, the peaceful village becomes the site of petty jealousies, romantic rivalries, and deadly secrets. When Inspector Lynley and Sergeant Havers arrive in Keldale, the village is deserted. Subsequently, Roberta is sent to Barnstingham Mental Asylum by her cousin, Richard Gibson, who stands to inherit William Teys' farm.

Roberta Teys, the murder victim's youngest daughter, has confessed to decapitating William Teys with an axe. Living with her aging, ailing parents, Havers knows that getting back into CID is her ticket out of poverty and squalor. Living in the working-class neighborhood of Acton, Havers is painfully aware of the class difference which exists between herself and Lynley. Havers is convinced that Lynley looks down his nose at anyone other than the high-born and beautiful: Havers is neither. He is a womanizer and a rogue as far as Havers is concerned. Sergeant Havers was recently demoted for being difficult to work with, and the William Teys murder case is her opportunity for reinstatement at CID (Criminal Investigations Department of the British Police). Inspector Lynley, who also happens to be the 8th Earl of Asherton and a born aristocrat, is investigating a murder there with Sergeant Barbara Havers. Elizabeth George's first novel, A Great Deliverance, finds Inspector Thomas Lynley of New Scotland Yard in the small northern village of Keldale on the wild Yorkshire moors.

A great deliverance