The details of the setting, social issues, and police work were without peer, but the conclusion just wasn’t all that satisfying to me. I may have to go do some research so that I can understand why the perp did it. I feel lacking in some common knowledge held by others (in England, perhaps?) that would help me to better appreciate the intricacies of the conclusion.

I generally like P.D. James' books, but I had two major problems with this one. First, she didn't seem to take the problem of a priest abusing children seriously, which is disgraceful. Second, the strong motive that everyone seemed to think the murderer had seemed vanishingly unlikely to me. My main pleasure in this book was James' writing style, and even that got a bit wordy.

Adam Dalgliesh visits a theological college in Suffolk where a young ordinand had been found dead on the beach. The man’s wealthy father is not convinced by the accident verdict and has pressured Scotland Yard to make a further investigation. Dalgliesh knows the college from staying there as a boy, and agrees to combine a planned trip to East Anglia with some discreet questions. However, his presence seems to trigger further unpleasant events and before long his involvement has widened to a murder investigation.

I found this story rather dull - as is often the case with James, I enjoyed the description of the closed setting and the characters who live there, but found the plot quite weak and the motivation for the crime tenuous. I often get absorbed in the story, only to find myself really disappointed by the ending as the book trails aimlessly to a close, and this was the case here.

James also overuses certain tropes - once again Dalgliesh’s confrontation with a killer leads to a show of physical courage where he battles against the elements, and certain scenes felt very familiar from earlier books. More off putting is that this book offers characters (including Dalgliesh himself) excusing a paedophile priest, protesting about those who caused his suffering by getting evidence that got him punished for his crimes and pitying him for being sent to prison.

Overall, I would give this book 2.5 stars as it wasn’t up there with her best, but for me was certainly better than Devices and Desires

No engancha nada. De lo peor que he leído de ella

This is the first P.D. James that I have read and I thoroughly enjoyed this murder mystery. Many murder mysteries are rather light and you can predict who the murderer is early into a read. Not the case the this author’s style. Loved the dense, rich description of place, events, and characters. Intersperse this with the closely kept emotions of Adam Dalgliesh, chief detective and writer of poetry and you have a fine novel. I’ll be reading more of her novels.

Editing wise this book is an absolute mess but a very fun mess.

Taking a star off for something vaguely unsatisfying about the reveal - no, I mean, it all makes sense and the psychology is steady, but I guess I wanted something more shocking? Mm.

Regardless this is one hell of a novel. It's a page-turner, it's moody, it's melancholy, and I read the whole thing in about three days. Highly recommended if you like murder mysteries.

So I liked this but was turned off by the sympathy for the pedophilie.

PD James is clearly skilled at building characters, and creating a world for those characters to live in. But its a dark, depressing world, where everyone has pain and secrets, and there is no real joy to speak of. Its a wonder there aren't more deaths (from either suicide or murder), since there really seems to be no point in going on living.
Aside from these depressing aspects, the murder mystery fell a bit flat for me as well. A weak motive, an even weaker police investigation, and an ending which attempted to tie up all of the loose ends, all contribution to a ho-hum effort.

If you like cozy British murder mysteries, dashing detectives and layers of poetic plot points, boy have I got the book for you! The author for you, more like.

Det. Adam Dalgliesh of the Metropolitan Police is called back to the cloister of his youth to look into a suspicious death & winds up smack dab in the middle of a full blown power grab, murder fest. A convincing & sometimes endearing cast of characters all meet to provide excellent red herrings (or kippers as Father Martin would say), intrigue & motives galore.

I found P.D. James on the recommendation of a friend & wanted to start with Death Comes to Pemberley, but she pointed me to this as a Dalgliesh primer & I’m so glad she did. There are hints at a meta-narrative found throughout the series, but it wasn’t a deterrent from the case in hand—in fact, it only made me want to go back & read more from the beginning!

There were more sexual overtones than I was expecting in a church-based murder mystery, but nothing gratuitous & largely in service of the plot/characters’ motives.

All in all, a read that’s right up my alley & an encouragement to read my next P.D. James soon!

A young, unpopular ordinand at St. Anselm's Theological College on the Suffolk coast dies under a collapsed mound of sand. The elderly woman who finds his body is suffocated by a killer. The pensive Dalgliesh is summoned to investigate the ordinand's death by the ordinand's ruthless, alpha-male father. An archdeacon is bludgeoned, an altar painting desecrated. Dalgliesh, so long alone, feels stirring in his loins for the beautiful Cambridge poetess Emma Lavenham. (Is that even accurate - does Dalgliesh have loins? Isn't he one of literature's loinless?) The unravelling of the mystery is perhaps a teeny bit disappointing, as the murderer hadn't really been on my radar screen until near the end of the book. But who cares? People read mysteries for the buildup. I thought this was one of James's better ones.

Fawn count: 5

This was my first Adam Dalgliesh mystery. The setting at a remote seminary appealed to me. James did a good job of holding my interest and slowly revealing secrets of various characters. On to the next one...