PJ_Reviews

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 Reviews

Cover Her Face

In her first novel //Cover Her Face//, P.D. James introduces her recurring character, Scotland Yard's Detective Chief Inspector Adam Dalgliesh. She also spends a great deal of time introducing all of the other characters, including the eventual victim. The reader meets the residents of Martingale, the Maxie family estate. The Maxie family, which consists of Mrs. Eleanor Maxie, the family matriarch; Mr. Simon Maxie, Eleanor's invalid husband; Stephen Maxie, their son; and Deborah Riscoe, their widowed daughter, commonly entertains guests Felix Hearne, who is in love with Deborah, and Catherine Bowers, who expects to marry Stephen and employs several servants, most notably Martha Bultitaft, who cares for Mr. Maxie, and Sally Jupp, a beautiful unwed mother who came highly recommended as a servant from St. Mary's Refuge for Girls. However, Sally does not seem to understand her status in the household and often presses the boundaries of what is considered aceptable. When Sally triumphantly announces to Mrs. Maxie's dinner party that Stephen has proposed to her, everyone is in shock over the scandal, which only gets worse the next morning when Sally is discovered strangled in her bed. As Dalgliesh begins to investigate, he finds that just about everyone had a motive and nearly no one has an alibi. At various points in the novel, the reader is made to feel like different characters killed Sally through a series of red herrings and plot twists. James adds suspense to what is a very formulaic mystery by telling the story from the third person omniscient point of view, which allows the reader to hear some of the character's secrets. Though it may seem like this would give away the identity of the killer, it did not. It did, however, help explain why the killer, who ends up confessing to the crime, did what he or she did. Though this book wasn't quite what I was expecting, I liked it. I wish there had been more Adam Dalgliesh in it because he seems like such an interesting character, but I liked how much detail about each of the suspects James included. My only real complaint is that she made it too difficult to pick out the murderer. Even after the killer was revealed, there was no Lightbulb Moment that made it clear how the reader should have known it was that person. I understand why he or she did what he or she did, but I still feel that the clues would have made just as much sense had the killer been another character. Reading reviews of other books by P.D. James, it seems as though they only get better and that her later books have more action, but I am glad that I started with the first of her novels and suggest the same to anyone interested in James.

A Mind to Murder

This second mystery novel from P.D. James again follows Adam Dalgliesh. Like //Cover Her Face//, //A Mind to Murder// has a large cast of characters, which makes it difficult for the reader to pick out the murderer. This story takes place at the Steen Clinic, an exclusive psychiatric out-patient facility. The administrative officer, an unpopular woman named Enid Bolam, has been stabbed through the chest with a chisel after being knocked unconscious. Because the doors and windows of the clinic were locked from the inside, the murderer is most likely an employee. Suspects, to name a few, include Dr. Baguley, whose wife Bolam informed of his affair; Mrs. Bostock, who was gunning for Bolam's job; Peter Nagle, a suspicious porter with artistic aspirations; Dr. Stein, who openly disliked Bolam and tried to get her removed from the clinic; and Nurse Marion Bolam, the victim's cousin who stood to inherit Bolam's fortune. As is typical for a P.D. James book, //A Mind to Murder// gives a lot of detail. The ending comes together perfectly, tying up the loose ends and making perfect sense. I liked this book more that //Cover Her Face//. Though there were still a ton of characters to keep straight, there was also more Dalgliesh, who helped keep everything in perspective. There were still several false leads, but I think that the ending ultimately fit together much better. Some scenes in retrospect could have been left out, but they helped to create more of a sense of mystery, letting the reader get a better idea of what the characters were thinking and their motivation for acting the way they did. There were also several references to Deborah Riscoe from //Cover Her Face//, which I liked and which also made me glad that I started with James's first book because, although Deborah is by no means a large part of this book, I liked being able to follow the character arc.