Lynley and Helen (Nathanial Parker and Lesley Vickerage) travel to Lynley's family estate for their engagement party in "A Suitable Vengeance," from season 2 of the popular series. It's not the high old time one would have hoped for.
Lynley doesn't want much to do with his mother, Lady Ashton (Gabrielle Drake) and he soon confesses his reason to Helen, and it has to do with his father's doctor (Peter Egan). Lynley's brother Peter (Matthew Goode) is angry with his older brother because he thinks he abandoned the family after their father's death. Havers (Sharon Small) arrives for the party and feels out of place amidst the luxury. She's soon needed - the estate manager, John Penellin, is arrested for the murder of his son-in-law, who owned a shop with his daughter in the village.
That's the first death - others follow, as well as the surfacing of a big problem of Peter's.
Havers and Lynley decide Penellin's son-in-law must have been smuggling drugs, but then it becomes apparent that the problem goes deeper than that.
Excellent mystery, quite sad, and calling for a lot of emotion from Nathaniel Parker, who is more than up to it. Matthew Goode has since become a more prominent actor -- this is one of his first appearances. Sharon Small is lovely support as Havers, putting up, as does Helen, with Lynley's sometimes ill humor. He's pretty tense here, and with good reason. As I've often said, I could do without Vickerage's Helen. Not her fault - I just always feel like Lynley could have done better.