As other readers said, I found it difficult to know who was who in the book: too many characters, too similar from my point of view. And I found Dalgliesh colder than usual for him, too, less likeable.

‘Death of an Expert Witness’ has long been one of my favourite novels; even inspiring me to seriously consider forensic pathology as a career. That balloon burst when after a spot of research I found out that I’d have to qualify on medicine first, before a further lengthy postgraduate studies in pathology. Whenever was I going to start earning? Feeble of me really; which just goes to show that I clearly wasn’t cut out for that career.

This book, in addition to being a very well-crafted story of murder, also brings its reader to face and consider the population of scientists who examine and analyse evidence from a crime scene, before presenting their findings at trial in Court. This book gives a hefty nudge to remind it’s reader that even scientists, and budding-scientists are mere human beings, with talents and failings, hopes and fears, and the gift and knowledge to look differently at, and draw conclusions about, the world. Even today this community remains pretty well invisible (probably safer that way) and unrecognised for the enormous amount they contribute to the well-being of public life.

On page 308 (of 352) Dalglish sits quietly, engrossed in reading the (English, 1662) Book of Common Prayer (accept no substitutes). What part or page of that Book was he reading, I wonder? I have some ideas; but would be interested in the suggestions of others.

Another strong entry in this excellent detective series. I did not find this one to be quite as good as the previous two but it’s still filled with James’ great writing, plotting and character development.

Fun thing about finally unpacking boxes of books, many of which have been in storage for a long time - rediscovering old favorites.

A forensic investigator who works in a medical examiner's office is found killed inside the locked building. Dalgliesh and his team start sifting through the clues and suspects. Can they figure it out before someone else gets killed?

Very well-written. Great police procedural. One of my favorite authors.

It’s always the end of these things that disappoint me. I particularly don’t like where all the clues laid out ahead of time are red herrings meant to mislead and critical information is withheld from the reader until the very end, making it impossible to fully participate in the denouement.

One of the most unlikable victims evah. No surprise that someone bashed his head in with a mallet.

P.D. James has some of the most vivid writing of any mystery author. Adore her.

Listened to in audio format.

I remembered the Adam Daglish TV adaptations when I was young. I remembered at the time I did not like the Adam Daglish character. When these book was in a Audible two for one I thought I would give it another try.

Death of an expert witness was first published in 1977. This book is a bit of a cozy mystery set in The Fen. Unfortunately Commander Adam Daglish lacks personality, he is neither charismatic or a bad boy like DI Regan who another Tv detective from The Sweeney.

The storyline showed promise, forensic scientist Dr Edwin Lorrimer was found murdered in his laboratory at Hoggarts. It turns out that Dr Mortimer was recently turned down for promotion and clashed with his new boss Dr Kerrison. However there were too many characters in the story for me to remember. It took me a few moments to work out who the character was.

All in all, I did enjoy the story but it was more on a par with a Midsomer Murder/Columbo murder mystery then a thriller.

At last, a fully fledged Adam Dalgliesh mystery. This being the 6th volume in the series and we are finally seeing what Commander Dalgliesh can do.
In this volume, we have reverted back to seeing Dalgliesh as a bit of a one dimensional character, though this was seen through the eyes of the other characters. This was the one area where the novel fell down somewhat for me.
Otherwise we have a cast of characters with hints of incest and lesbianism, which at the time the novel was written would have been a bit risqué for mainstream authors. These delicate subjects were handled well and I can honestly say I was totally wrong in who I thought was responsible for the murders.
I salute anyone who is able to really unravel this complex situation. There were so many red herrings and unreliable characters, but it all worked out neatly. I say this in terms of a resolution of the crime, not for the characters’ lives.
I really can’t wait to read in with the series - I recommend these for people who like a good whodunnit without the gratuitous and voyeuristic detail.

This took a while to get into.

There is a reason PD James is so well-known as a mystery writer - she knows what she's doing, and she's good at it. The woman can craft a mystery. I hear from various places that this wasn't one of her best, though, and I'm quite glad to hear that, because sorry, PD, but this wasn't really for me.

It started off with the mother of all info-dumps. I find it very sad when mystery novels start off like this. It is easy to overdo it completely, and this overdid it completely. Then the death count confused me: a chapter or so in, someone dies, and it's not the expert witness of the title. This is the death of the woman in the clunch pit. I was pretty interested in this, and wondered when and how it would be worked in, but it wasn't. It was completely ignored until very near the end, when it was vaguely pointed out that someone down the road had identified the woman's body and arrested her husband COMPLETELY OFFSCREEN. It's like the opposite of Chekhov's gun. Why would you even do that? Then there was the titular death, and that was explained in about four very dense pages of more info-dump near the end. And then there was the Obligatory Afterthought Death, which I have yet to understand the point of. It created no tension, and just seemed a bit pointless.

Also, can we talk about Commander Dalgliesh? Not really, that's the problem. Commander Dalgliesh is the detective. He looks a bit nondescript, although he has a moustache, and he always seems to say the right thing, which is to say that he has no defining features at all. This is the first time I've read a book with him in, it's true, but I feel like I haven't even met the man. Given that his sidekick got upwards of four pages of life history before they'd even started the detecting, and I heard all about his hair colour, accent, level of education and progression through the police service, I with I'd found out a bit more about The Man Himself. Give me hard-drinking lovable-but-flawed old men about to get forced into early retirement for being sarky with their superiors any day, at least they have a bit of character to them.

So, if the murders were a bit of a let-down, and I've still no idea who the detective was, what was the point of this book?

Well, I feel like I've been a bit harsh, there. I liked some of the characters a lot. Brenda was an absolute sweetheart, everyone with the title Inspector was good to hang around with for a while, and I'll even admit to having a soft spot for Hoary Domenica, writhing mass of cliché though she undoubtedly was. And dammit, when there wasn't a massive exposition of backstory going on, PD James can write a darned good mystery. She can keep you guessing. There were quite a few things I really didn't see coming - the significance of the numbers, for instance, was clever and unusual, and she's clearly got an eye for writing a classic puzzle, and writing it well. And as for the Big Showdown, yes, I'll admit to staying up for an extra hour to read it, which is always a good sign.

The reputation of PD James as the writer of a good mystery is a strong one, and I really do want to give her another go. But I have to say that this didn't light any of my fires.

I was little disappointed, not one PD James's best by a long shot. Not a lot of satisfaction with the motives of the killer. It was beautifully set-up but the sort just loses the plot.