Yet another good story of P.D. James.

This story was a modern take on Agatha. Christie’s “And Then There Were None”. So if you haven’t read that, read it before the James book.

When you do read this one, make sure you can do it in one sitting. This story draws you in fast and doesn’t want to let go.

Una amena lectura de verano, sobre un crimen cometido en una isla aislada y con un antiguo faro. Lo más flojo es la introducción de los personajes que fue un poquitín lenta y que mi edición tiene muchos errores (no sé si sólo de impresión o también de traducción)

The Emotional Awakening of Commander Dangliesh, 1 Dec 2005


"The call could hardly have come at a less convenient time. After a month of working a sixteen-hour day tiredness had caught up with him, and, although he could mange tiredness, what he longed for was rest, peace and, for two blessed days the company of Emma. He told himself he only had himself to blame for the spoilt weekend. He wasn't compelled to undertake a possible murder investigation, however politically or socially important that victim or challenging the crime."
Thus Adam Dalgliesh has set the scene for portraying a little emotion in his life, and how he makes decisions. We come to realize that Commander Dalgliesh is a human after all. He does love Emma and he does worry that she may not love him as he does her. The worries of professional man wrapped up in his life and how to separate the two so that he may enjoy what really matters.

Commander Dalgliesh decides he must take this assignment and comply with his Superior’s request, fly to Combe Island off the Cornish coast of England. A suspicious death has occurred on this most elite island. He calls Detective Inspector Kate Miskin and his new Sergeant Francis Benton-Smith, and they helicopter off to solve a mystery that is one of the best that PD James has written.. What they find is a lovely, remote island that is populated by people who all have their own mysteries to hide.

It appears that a famous author, Nathan Oliver has been found hanging from the lighthouse and he is dead. Was this suicide or was this murder? That is exactly what
Adam Dalgliesh and Kate and. Benton are there to find out In the midst of the investigation, one of the occupants of the island becomes critically ill and the diagnosis is SARS, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. The symptoms are suspiciously similar to what Commander Daggles has been experiencing and as he becomes more ill he is taken to the infirmary where he is put in isolation. Kate Miskin and Benton-Smith must now take on this investigation, and this is a very important career move for Kate Miskin. She has a chance to show that she can carry this investigation to the conclusion. The cast of characters also isolated at the island become a little frantic when another murder is uncovered. The tension peaks and Kate and Benton-Smith must rise to the occasion.

PD James has given voice and emotion to Commander Adam Dagliesh. Will he lose the affection of his beloved Emma by taking on this case? Detective Inspector Kate Miskin also finds this investigation an emotional rollercoaster. Her past life and loves come to the fore, and can she rise to the occasion of leading the investigation and solving these difficult crimes? Sergeant Francis Benton-Smith has so far not shown that he can be part of a team, and can he really work with a woman who is his superior?

PD James has written a superb novel. One of her best, in my mind. It is brilliantly thought out, and the suspense and tension keep us hanging on tenter hooks. Highly recommended. prisrob

The storyline is perhaps a bit weak but I always enjoy James' writing. Dalglish's love life is again a thread running through the novel. It's a mystery how someone so boring can attract a woman in the first place but I suppose there's someone for everyone! Kate Miskin is a much more interesting character.

I’ve got a sort of folk memory reverence for PD James, her chunkier works were a staple Christmas gift between the adults in my world when I was a kid, and I remember sneaking back downstairs, having been sent to bed once already, to watch my mum, watching Adam Dalgliesh at his best, while she did the ironing (to that and sometimes Tenko).

But this. This is fecking awful. It’s like a paint it by numbers locked room mystery on an island - but the characters and motivations are flat, the writing is turgid. There are three rather wincingly trite sex scenes in the first 100 pages - what WAS she thinking? The island itself, which should be riven with potential, threats, hiding places - is featureless to the point of pointlessness. They could just as well be in a hotel in Slough.

The characters all have weirdly interchangeable names, making them hard to track - Padgett, Fudgett, Busking, HuMblebrag (only one of these is real but you get me).

There’s very little police procedure of any note, - well, none really- nothing peculiar to islands, or lighthouses, a dozen interchangeable candidates on an island. All completely forgettable. Some people catch SARS towards the end for NO discernible plot reason that I can tell. I assume it was because Even Adam Dalgliesh couldn’t be arsed with it. Certainly I wanted to dob the murderer in myself to the police, it’s so bad. It’s almost as if she dialled it in from the House of Lords late in her career. Oh.....

hate to say it, kinda meh, am still a little confused tbh but maybe i just wasn’t paying attention

Admittedly I opened this book thinking it was a different novel by the same name. My bad.

But I kept an open mind and wanted to enjoy the mystery. Yet, I just couldn’t find myself captivated by the book. I just didn’t find myself keeping track of the characters or the details of the mystery. And perhaps that’s on me.

I also kept envisioning a world set in 1900 every time I heard about “anti-flu injections” and the like. But then they’d reference a cell phone and I’d be surprised.

This is only my second P.D. James books so I can't compare this book to a "typical" P.D. James book. I enjoyed it very much, James can certainly write an intelligent mystery with fully developed characters. My only warning is to keep a dictionary nearby; she does like to use an expanded vocabulary!

A better than average mystery, well written. The one aspect of P.D. James that falls a little short of Elizabeth George (who overall is a lower quality writer) is that you don't become quite as invested in Dalgliesh and Kate Miskin the way you do in Lynley and Havers. Maybe I just haven't read enough James, or maybe the teevee Lynley and Havers are just more familiar to me than the teevee Dalgliesh. Maybe it's because I can't erase the mustachioed Roy Marsden completely from my mind, with his thin yet droopy 70s style face.

This is the first mystery novel I've read. I have to say this author has a decent vocabulary; enough to use words like etiolated, atavistic, soubriquets in proper context and not have them stick out like a sore thumb. She also uses a few metaphors and decent geography details. Speaking of details, however, what is it with the room descriptions? Every room in the manor and five cottages is laid out in detail; the exact angle of every chair in relation to the windows, fireplace, doors, the patterns on the wallpaper etc.etc.etc. Since non of this is important to the story why do it? Mid book - I've had enough suspect enquiries; all eight of them at least four pages long and saying the exact same thing. I didn't do it.
Boring.

This one looks like a classic detective story, and there is no wonder as the Baroness was almost 85 when the book was written.
I see a lot of high marks here, but I consider the book quite average: the plot isn't the finest one, there are some pages in surplus and the characters, Dalgliesh included, are not the nicest possible fellows...

I haven't read much P.D. James so I don't know if this is one of her best. She does seem to be in top form. James follows her detectives as well as the islanders: victims and murderer both (and keeps us uncertain as to his identity). The result is a compellingly rich tapestry. It seems James's characters enjoy healthy sex lives, especially women, and especially detectives. Good to know! And don't pay attention to the the back of the book; according to it, Kate Miskin, Adam Dalgliesh's principle detective, "is going through an emotional crisis." NOT. And: "the ambitious Sergeant Francis Benton-Smith is not happy about having a female boss." Not.
But that would make for less exciting jacket copy.

An enjoyable read. I'll look for more by her.