P.D. James (public domain) |
Phyllis Dorothy James White (3 August 1920 – 27 November 2014) was a British novelist and has written some of the most clever and complex mysteries of all time. Her prose is dense and rich. There are always so many personal plots going on that there are any number of suspects to consider.
Although many of the books are in rather modern settings, most of the motives and lifestyles are rooted in the past that people seem powerless to escape.
Adam is a complex person, a poet as well as a detective. His wife and infant son died in childbirth about 15 years before the series begins. He is also knowledgeable about fine art.
There are 14 books in the Adam Dalgleish series, but she wrote many standalone mysteries as well.
Recurring Characters of Note
Adam Dalgliesh, whose career spans Detective Superintendant to Commander of a special force.
Martin, his assistant who always sits quietly, taking notes
Deborah Riscoe- she appears in the first book, and Dalgliesh feels an attachement to her
Kate Miskin, one of his assistants
Benton, his other assistant
Emma, his love
#1 Cover Her Face (1962)
This opening book in the series is really more in the style of the Golden Age mysteries. Set sometime post WWII, England has not yet made much of a transition to the modern era. (From statements made in the next books of the series, we can determine that this one is set in 1960.)
Sally, a single mother, comes with her baby to the Maxie household as a maid. She had been at the local home for unwed mothers, and they had placed her in this job. But Sally isn't about to fit into anyone's expectations. She likes to tease, to create sly mischief, and play one person against another. The housekeeper has no use for her or the baby, and barely manages to conceal her contempt.
Meanwhile, the family is embroiled their own tense situations. Simon Maxie, the patriarch is dying in the upstairs sickroom, attended by most of the female members of the family and staff.
Stephen Maxie, the son, is a medical doctor who spends most of his time in London. However, his former lover Catherine spends most of her time at the house and seems to desire to continue the relationship. Deborah, the widowed daughter, lives there. and Felix who was cruelly interrogated and tortured during the war is trying to win her love.
Various villagers and the family who raised Sally also come into the story.
These strained relationships lead to the death of one of the players.
The denoument is the typical room filled with all the suspects and Detective Dalgliesh revealing secret after secret until we eventually know who did the deed and why. There are suspects and clues sprinkled throughout the book. A classic of the style, but don't expect it to reflect the 1960s.
#2 A Mind to Murder (1963)
This book can be dated specifically to 1963, and it says the previous story was three years earlier.
In a small private psychiatric clinic the senior administrator is lured down to the records room where she is knocked out and stabbed to death. Due to the fact that all the doors except the front one are bolted on the inside, and the portor saw no one unusual come or go from the front, the crime has to be committed by someone who was already inside.
Characters range from the porters (janitors) to the psychiatrists and all the associated staff, not to mention patients who may be unbalanced. Only the lowliest of the porters has a good alibi, as he was out mailing the days letters at the time of the crime.
In true form to the genre, there are motive and lies a-plenty.
#3 Unnatural Causes (1967)
At the beginning of this story, Dalgliesh is contemplating asking Deborah Riscoe to marry him. He's on his way to visit his aunt on the shores of the North Sea. She has never married, and Adam feels more at home with her than almost anyone else.
Many of her neighbors are authors, and the first night he is there, several of these people come to visit and contemplate whether to report that one of these fellow authors has gone missing. While they are talking, the police come to the door and report that his body has been found in a small boat on the shore with the hands cut off.
#4 Shroud for a Nightingale (1971)
Set in a medieval looking manor that has been turned into a teaching hospital, Nightingale House is part of a respectable medical complex. Young nurses in training and some of the staff live there.
During one of the training sessions a strange and tragic accident occurs and one of the young women dies. Some think it is murder and some think accident.
Only a night later, another student dies. Dalgliesh is called in.
There is plenty of gossip and almost no privacy in this crowded facility full of women. Everyone knows "the dirt" on everyone else, but uncovered motives for causing either of these deaths seem to petty to be sufficient.
The ending is a bit of a surprise, although the clues are all there for the careful reader.
#5 The Black Tower (1975)
#6 Death of an Expert Witness (1977)
#7 A Taste for Death (1986)
#8 Devises and Desires (1989)
Dalgliesh must travel to the Norfolk Coast to take possession of a mill which his aunt, his last remaining relative, left to him in her will. While there, as a courtesy, he consults with the local police on a serial killer.
Apart from the killings, the most controversial topic in the area is the nuclear power plant. Detractors are organizing against nuclear power. A local artist is renting a cottage from an officer of the plant, but she wants him and his family out of the house. The director of the plant has been offered a better job in London, but his personal assistant does not want to stay with him.
Dalgliesh is invited to a dinner party with a great many of these people, but one of the guests is late. When he does arrive, it is with the news that he has just discovered the most recent victim of the killer.
#9 Original Sin (1994)
#10 A Certain Justice (1997)
#11 Death in Holy Orders(2001)
#12 The Murder Room (2003)
#13 The Lighthouse (2005)
#14 The Private Patient (2008)
An investigative reporter who carries a terrible facial scar from childhood finally decides to have it removed. She sets up an appointment with a famous plastic surgeon who offers care in London or at a manor house in the country. She chooses that option. We are told on the first page, that she is not going to live. About the first third of the book is about the reporter including a younger, male friend who is always asking her for money.
The staff at the Manor is a complex mix of people. The surgeon currently owns it, but his assistant is the daughter of the previous owners who had it for centuries. The surgical assistant lives on the grounds with his sister. They had been caring for their father prior to his death. The chef and his anxious wife also live on site. A young lady serves as a cleaning assistant, and several other people are on the fringes.
The Manor also includes a prehistoric circle of stones so common to the British Isles where once an accused witch was burned.
When the reporter is strangled in her bed, the obvious conclusion is that it's an inside job. Several of the characters have loose ties to her, but nothing that seems serious enough to serve as a motive for murder.
Dalgliesh and his team are called in because another patient at the manor has enough pull to insist they take the case.
The plot is complex and the reader is kept guessing until almost the end. There are several chapters of resolution and denouement which work well for the last book in the series.
