Wow. Where to start criticizing?

The self-centered, arrogant detective?
The bizarre, unlikely, and overly grotesque murder?
The strangely poetic descriptions and metaphors so out of place that they stopped the flow of story?

I would have considered myself a PD James fan before this book as I remember reading and enjoying her books when I was in my twenties but after reading this one, I would say I wouldn't have wanted to be her friend. I can excuse our villains being egotistical asses but not our detective hero. The villain/killer might have had "mustache twirling" tendencies (confession tape? really?) but I agree with their assessment of Dalgliesh. I might jump to a more recent book to try again with PD James or I might just give up.

After enjoying the first two Dalgleish books, this one was a bit of a slog. James does much to bring GA tropes up to date with her version of the village setting and closed circle of suspects. Problem is, I found the London section far more engaging, and the characterisation left a lot to be desired: it's hard to keep the male suspects distinguishable. There's a rather horrible attitude to physical disability that left a bad taste in my mouth. More positively, we get much greater insight into Dalgleish's psyche and his self-contained nature that shies away from intimacy and commitment. It's annoying that he solves the murder through a flash of intuition, even if it's fun to see him play the role of the interested amateur against the official police detective. And I didn't believe the solution *at all*. A very staged, artificial murder mystery.

Well, yeah...it was okay. It was old fashioned and something I was in the mood for. Unfortunately the plot was full of characters that didn't resonate with me. Dalgliesh is a reluctant sleuth who'd rather be doing nothing on holiday than getting involved with self-absorbed suspects in the murder of a mystery writer. And worse, he just wasn't very interesting as a character. He writes poetry, but seemed in a foul mood throughout this novel and not in any kind of endearing way. The murder itself is far too elaborately plotted, and the motives behind the crimes kind of just ring hollow. But I've liked other novels by P.D. James, so I'm not going to hold this one against her.

I read this book because I've heard of PD James as the best of detective stories, but this book was awful! In its defense, it was the cheapest James novel on amazon, but still. I expected MUCH better.

Not a single character is sympathetic or real... at all. Including the main character detective. it made me care very little about the book and the killer. I wouldn't have minded one bit if the detective himself was the killer, since I had no attachment to him. It might have made the book more interesting, actually.

The story itself had potential to be interesting but fell flat. Especially when Daeglish is pretty sure he knows what happened with no evidence whatsoever. Unless he had evidence about the dead guy he wasn't sharing, this is absolute bull. The full solution was really out there (the book did have that going for it, at least), but the detective guesses it with no evidence? And the actual detective in charge of the case believed him and goes with it? Oh come on. And don't get me started in the confession... ugh. It seems like James had a good idea but didn't feel like figuring our how to incorporate actual evidence into the book, so just solves it all with a convenient and thorough confession.

I also have a serious pet peeve for the "detective goes on vacation and there is a murder" plot. Ugh. As my husband says, "never be friends with a detective. If fiction is true, it's only a matter of time before you are dead or a murder suspect."

Anyways, I found no redeeming qualities in this book. If this is a bad example of James, please let me know, because otherwise I don't see reading any more.

I give up... the sense of de ja vue was so strong that I decided that I've already read this book... must move on to the other books in the stack. An early PD James but well written nonetheless...

La historia está narrada en tercera persona y protagonizada por el detective Adam Dalgliesh.

La trama gira en torno a la investigación de la muerte del escritor Maurice Seton y todo el misterio que envuelve al cadáver de este cuando los policías lo encuentran.

En general la acción es bastante lenta y el tema de la investigación del caso es todo diálogo y pensamientos internos que tiene Adam. Me recordó mucho a los libros de Agatha Christie.

La pluma está bien, se entiende todo perfectamente y las escenas estan muy bien construidas. Es una lectura bastante entregenida y amena que leí sin darme cuenta.

Los personajes es lo mejor del libro ya que estan muy bien construidos y nos da tiempo a conocerlos a todos. Cada uno tiene un papel fundamental en la historia y me gustaron mucho.

El final no lo esperaba ni siquiera adiviné al sospechoso así que me llevé una gran sorpresa y me dejó con buen sabor de boca.

This third book is a charm in my opinion! I struggled with the first two and if this one went down like the others I was giving up. The writing was engaging, vocabulary was top notch without being too pedantic, plot was beautifully contrived, and the setting in coastal Suffolk was perfectly atmospheric. While I had guessed the who dunnit, I couldn't figure out the how or why dunnit. I feel like I know a little more about Inspector Dalgleish, even though it took a busman's holiday to see glimpses into his personal life. On with the next book in the P.D. James challenge, Shroud For A Nightingale!

One of P.D. James' early ones. Well-written but as with other James's, the murder seems overly complicated and the motive less than convincing.

I've read three of hers recently, and I think she's gotten better with her later police procedurals. But, a few things seem to be constants:
~there will be at least one more murder after the initial one
~the community from which the murderer will be found is tight and isolated: an island, a group of judges, a small oceanside town.
~the death will be complicated, almost ritualistic in certain aspects.

4,5*

UGH. So I'm coming at this as someone who generally likes PD James' books - this is maybe the 6th I've read - and I've read tons of Golden Age mysteries. That being said, this book is so ableist that it's painful. And that's not even mentioning the sexism and homophobia. I expect some amount of all of that given the time period, but when it takes over the plot of the book it's really inexcusable.

Sylvia Kedge is treated horribly throughout the book. The other characters all either dislike her or pity her, usually forget about her, and consider her to be ugly and sexless. There is one line in the book that sums it up pretty well, saying "Like so many of the disabled she was at once patronised and exploited." Kedge herself thinks,"she wondered whether it was worse to be feared or pitied."So James can see what is happening here, but doesn't go anywhere good with that self-knowledge.

It's sort of an established tactic for mystery writers to describe all of the suspects in ways that make them sound morally distasteful and this sometimes makes it hard to differentiate the author's prejudices from the characters' prejudices. So at first I gave James a bit of the benefit of the doubt that she was just showing her characters' flaws. But things went downhill. Disability is treated poorly pretty much as a rule in the books I've read by James' and Golden Age authors. The same tired misconceptions arise again and again. The question of whether the disabled person's life is worth living, the reduction to a sexless object, ignoring their agency and discounting them as incapable of having committed the crime until surprise! they are stronger and smarter than they look.

Here we come upon the Bitter Cripple trope, where Kedge (quite rightly!) resents how she has been ignored and exploited her whole life. But instead of treating these grievances as reasonable, James instead casts her as an unhinged killer whose resentments have driven her to murder in an attempt to finally have some control over her own life. Ugh. I'm so tired of this trope. Sorry for the spoiler, but if I knew how grossly ableist the book was going into it I wouldn't have bothered reading it.

Ok, a brief mention of somethings I liked: Dalgliesh's relationship with his aunt is touching and I enjoyed it getting so much screen time. It is suggestive though that the only woman he is comfortable with is one who is entirely self-sufficient and makes no demands of him. I liked her though, she is smart and likes to be left alone to paint and record bird behaviors. It was also interesting to see Dalgliesh as a 2nd in command to the local police Inspector since he is technically on vacation. The tension between him and Inspector Reckless adds an interesting shape to some of the scenes.

Content Notes: Dismembered hands, somewhat graphic description of corpses, severe ableism, period sexism, period homophobia, period racism.

June 1967 Birthday Read

2.5 stars rounding to 3 stars because I can't stand the thought of PD getting 2 stars!

I don't believe this was a case of me not wanting to read, but more this book not capturing me. And it should have, a mystery writer found dead in a small English seaside town. And I love Inspector Dalgliesh. Maybe I didn't pay attention in the beginning, but I had a really hard time keeping track of the townspeople.

And I'm glad that 50 years have passed so books no longer have derogatory words to describe gay men!

Not as good as some of the others I've read.... too much irrelevant detail and not enough solid storyline for me.