by
P. D. James
ISBN: 0-8240-4983-7 Order from: Amazon.com Barnes & Noble.com
A stately home murder, in a classical English style, well executed but rather too stylized, with a very detached inspector.
Reviewed by David on June 12, 1998
Genre: Mystery (Stately Home Murder)
Synopsis: A wealthy family, friends and servants gather around the family abode as the terminally ill father lies on his deathbed. The tensions run high with intersecting personal dislikes, detritus of old love affairs and new seductions. Finally, one of the participants is found strangled. Dalgleish, a New Scotland Yard inspector arrives on the scene and investigates the murder, uncovering a number of secrets.
Short Review: This is an almost canonical English Stately Manor murder, updated for the 1960's. James introduces her inspector Dalgleish, who is destined to appear in one of the better-known series of the English sleuth variety. The beginning of the book is spent setting up the situation for murder. While appropriate to the plot, the suspense is lessened since the reader anticipates that all of this is a prologue to murder.
Dalgleish himself arrives on the scene almost as a cliché: the strong, brilliant, reserved Scotland Yard inspector with his trusty subordinate. His emotions are portrayed as submerged and controlled; but he comes off as a cold fish. His detached, even supercilious regard of the suspects does not make him too sympathetic. He detects brilliantly, but the usual stylized manner of waiting, followed by the disclosure at a gathering, make him appear smug. At the end, the murder turns out to be a crime of passion, not premeditation, and the murderer a victim of circumstance more than a villain.
James writes more than competently. Her style is deft and accurate, and her language is precise. However, there is a lack of suspense, and, worse, lack of sympathetic involvement with her characters, which prevent the reader's engagement. The victim and suspects appear pathetic; the detective—too detached. The book is worth reading, but not worth remembering.
Note: the more current, paperback version of Cover Her Face is available.
Overall: 5; Plot: 5; Characters: 3.5; Style: 5; World-building: 4; Originality: 3;
Garland Publishing, 1983, Cloth, 254 pages
ISBN: 0-8240-4983-7 Order from: Amazon.com Barnes & Noble.com