Although P.D. James is an excellent writer and her mysteries are interesting and intelligent, I just can't seem to warm up to Adam Dalgliesh. He's such a cold fish and it doesn't help that he--or James, through him--seems to have a certain disdain for the audience, who are the "suspects" in Dalgliesh's case and the reader in James's case.

In this mystery, James avoids a typical "reveal" where Dalgliesh sits everyone down and lets them and the reader know how and why the crime occurred. Instead, she has him discover the how about 75 pages from the end, but though he tells the detective in charge of the investigation (Dalgliesh himself is on vacation visiting his aunt and not officially involved with the case) and helps to solve the murder, James keeps this revelation from the reader, which feels to me like a cheat. Dalgliesh is observing something, the knowledge comes to him, we never knew how, and that is that. End of story. Now, we do get the why and how at the very end, but never Dalgliesh's epiphany and we're left to feel how he has "outgrown the satisfaction of being proved right. He had known who for a long time now and since Monday night he had known how. But to the suspects the day would bring a gratifying vindication and they could be expected to make the most of it."

Well, since I'm in there, as an observer along with the suspects because James keeps so much hidden from the reader, I feel that Dalgliesh is tired of me, too. And that's just off-putting.

Now, as I mentioned, James's writing is good as always, and the murder takes place in a seaside town full of authors of one kind or another, which is fun. But that ending really soured it for me and I'll be hard pressed to pick up the next Dalgliesh mystery unless I'm snowed in and have gone through all of my Christies.

Dalgliesh on Vacation
Review of the Sphere Books paperback edition (1973) of the Faber & Faber hardcover original (1967)

n  But he lingered himself for a few more minutes in the library. He had a tantalising and irrational feeling that somewhere, and very recently, he had seen a clue to Seton’s death, a fugitive hint which his subconscious mind had registered but which obstinately refused to come forward and be recognised. This experience was not new to him. Like every good detective, he had known it before. Occasionally it had led him to one of those seemingly intuitive successes on which his reputation partly rested. More often the transitory impression, remembered and analysed, had been found irrelevant. But the subconscious could not be forced. The clue, if clue it were, for the moment eluded him.n

Unnatural Causes finds Adam Dalgliesh on vacation in Monksmere on the East Suffolk coast for an annual visit to his aunt and a planned time of relaxation away from his duties at Scotland Yard CID. Death is not far away though. A corpse is brought ashore in a dinghy with its hands amputated. It is identified as the body of local writer Maurice Seton. The suspects include a brother and other writers, critics, secretaries & relatives who live in the vicinity and the local police investigate without calling in any official assistance from Scotland Yard. Adam Dalgliesh is at the heart of the investigation regardless.

In a surprise twist, the autopsy reveals that Maurice Seton died of natural causes, an apparent heart attack and he was known to have a failing heart. Why then would his corpse be mutilated after the fact and the body set adrift? Then yet another body is found, a poisoning or a suicide? The answers are revealed in a dramatic finale in the midst of a torrential storm and flood on the Suffolk coast where Dalgliesh is called on to save some of the locals. Is one of them a murderer and will Dalgliesh become their next victim in the chaos of the tempest?

I'm quite enjoying getting reacquainted with P.D. James and Adam Dalgliesh in a binge re-read thanks to discovering my old 1980's paperbacks in a storage locker cleanout. I look forward to the next books in the series.

Trivia and Links
* In Book 1 Cover Her Face, Adam Dalgliesh was a Detective Chief Inspector. In Books 2 to 4 he is a Detective Superintendent and then in Books 5 to 14 he is a Detective Commander.

Unnatural Causes was adapted for television in 1993 as part of the long running Dalgliesh TV-series for Anglia Television/ITV (1983-1998) starring actor Roy Marsden as Commander** Adam Dalgliesh of Scotland Yard. You can watch the entire episode of the 1993 adaptation on YouTube here. NOTE: The adaptation differs considerably from the original novel.
** Dalgliesh is a Superintendent in the novel, but in the TV adaptation he was already a Commander.

The new Acorn TV-series reboot Dalgliesh (2021-?) starring Bertie Carver as Adam Dalgliesh has not yet done an adaptation of Unnatural Causes. It has not yet been announced which books are being adapted for Season 2 (as of mid July 2022). Season 1 adapted Books 4, 5 & 7.

Remember me, you said, at Blythburgh,
As if you were not always in my mind
And there could be an art to bend more sure
A heart already wholly you inclined
Of you, the you enchanted mind bereave
More clearly back your image to receive,
And in the unencumbered holy place
Recall again an unforgotten grace.
I you possessed must needs remember still
At Blythburgh my love, or where you will. - A poem by Adam Dalgliesh written during Unnatural Causes.

When Adam goes to visit his aunt, he's hoping for a peaceful stay, but a local writer turning up sans hands means he gets no such thing. Now he must figure out what's going on before the killer strikes again.

This is my first PD James, and I did not find it half bad. The mystery was convoluted and I was curious enough about the resolution that I read on through a headache. I did wish that the side characters had more development, though.

I've always enjoyed reading books by P.D. James, especially when I travel. This murder mystery takes place in an isolated British writers' community inhabited by some quirky residents. A writer is found in a boat that drifts ashore with his hands cut off. Vacationing Scotland yard detective superintendent Adam Dalgliesh is sucked into the case because he is staying with his aunt in the area at the time.

Unnatural Causes is not the best of the Dalgliesh novels, but it is quite good.

Does anyone else think this one has a whiff of parody? A little metafiction in the opening, the ridiculous murder method, the taped confession? James is still driving towards the later psychological depth, but she's definitely nailed the storm-tossed coast thing.

A short take:

I am sad to write that this book is my least favorite of the first three Dalgliesh books. I pined for a more urban location--London circa the late 60s would have been a far more interesting setting--and I lost interest in the cast of suspects. The finale is droll and disappointing: I know James is a better writer. The one ingredient that kept me involved was, of course, Dalgliesh.

I am seriously considering following this book with the next volume--which I don't often do in this genre--so as to read the caliber of Dalgliesh mystery I had hoped for.


More thoughts:

One benefit to reading this tale is that it lead me to look up H.H. Crippen, who was charged with murdering his wife in the early 20C and apprehended abroad with the help of telegraphy. I also found the idea of the Cadaver Club fascinating.

Through the years I've read some of P.D. James' mysteries featuring Adam Dagleish. And I've seen some of the books portrayed in television dramas. Consequently, I'm confused as to which books I'm familiar with. But I have definitely not read or seen this one. Dagleish takes a holiday to visit his Aunt, who lives near the coast. It is winter,and James writing brings that forcefully to mind as Adam is caught up in a murder investigation that takes him out to deal with the elements. Other than Adam and his Aunt, the rest of the cast is such a deplorable group of whinny, self-centered people, that I could hardly stand them. That's mainly why I gave it only three stars. I didn't care for the recording artist who read the book, either. But James' elegant writing saves the audio version. It is as always an intriguing mystery.

The Dalgleish books seem a little dated now. Dalgleish gets drawn into an apparent murder on the
Suffolk coast where he visits his aunt.

Honestly this whole book felt like a waste of time. The only reason why I am giving it two stars is I liked how James described the location of the murders and we get into Dalgliesh's family history more.

"Unnatural Causes" follows Adam Dalgliesh as he returns to Suffolk to visit his aunt Jane. I maybe smiled at her name and had thoughts of Miss Marple dancing in my head. Adam's visit though is interrupted by a local writing group coming to call and then an Inspector Reckless interrupting to tell them that one of their own, Maurice Seton, was found dead and missing his hands. James takes you through all of the characters in this one, Adam, Sylvia Kedge, Maurice's secretary who is handicapped, Maurice's half brother and only heir, Digby Seton, Oliver Latham who is a critic, Celia Calthrop and her niece, Elizabeth.I am probably forgetting someone. We also have to deal with Adam and his tedious relationship and where is it going next throughout this one.

Honestly the description of Suffolk was great, I liked hearing things via Adam's third person point of view and other than that, this book dragged. I just didn't care about what was going on after a while. When the action moves from Suffolk things became even slower.

I have to say the ending was lackluster. The killer is revealed and I maybe went really? We then get the killer's taped confession that goes on and on for dozens of pages. I felt bored and things can be wrapped up by saying they felt insulted so they just went about murdering everyone they could.

3 Stars. I regret she is no longer with us, but if I'd had the chance, I would have said, "Dame James of Holland Park, I understand your famous Superintendent Dalgliesh of Scotland Yard is an intelligent man, well considered, and a published poet, but I have a longing for a little more detecting." In this third entry of the series, our hero is off on a short holiday with his aunt at her cottage at Monksmere Head on the Suffolk coast. It's a very small community of literary luminaries. He needs to relax far from the crowd of London and, incidentally, decide if he should ask Deborah Riscoe to marry him. While there, one of Jane Dalgliesh's neighbours, detective writer Maurice Seaton is found dead in a dinghy afloat on the North Sea, sans hands. Enter Detective Inspector Reckless of Suffolk C.I.D. who resents the presence of a senior member of the Yard, if only as a private visitor. One of the small community is responsible but who? Of course Dalgleish figures it out, but even then we are not privy to the contents of his flash of insight far from the end of the novel. (December 2019)

Old audio edition read by Marsden. Very good

For me, both the second book and this one didn’t hold up to the promise of the first book in the series.

I found the number of characters really confusing and there weren’t always clear things to differentiate them from each other. It was also kind of weird that someone else was on the case, not Dalgliesh, so he’s trying to figure it out at the same time that he’s always thinking about how it’s not his job. Also, the love subplot was so minimal I almost wished it weren’t there. It seemed a weird carryover from the first book into the second and third ones, but could have been good if it were more substantial.

I got bogged down and stopped to go read something before coming back to this. It picked up towards the end but still just wasn’t as satisfying of a read as the first one was for me.