P.D.James is a brilliant writer, no doubt about that. I mostly enjoy her books. I love her descriptive narrative and her eye for details. But this one tested my patience, so much so that, towards the end, I completely lost interest, I did not even care for the identity of the murderer.....I just couldn't take it anymore. Every time the narrative pace improved, it was "infuriatingly" disrupted by another unnecessarily detailed description of a room, it's curtains, flower arrangements and other such mundane things. This is perhaps the reason why I like Agatha Christie..... none of the nonsensical deviations from the plot....fast paced and well delivered..that too on time... especially when it matters.
I think with this one James was trying to prove her knowledge on investigation procedures and forensic biology to the readers. But we never questioned that.

This one lacks the thrill and the feel of mystery.

No chill ran down my spine....!!!

slow paced, a bit tedious, and the info dumps were frustrating. not her best by any stretch

When a murder occurs in a forensic lab closely connected to the police, the task is complicated. And there are many reasons that his co-workers may have wished Dr. Lorimer was removed from their work environment. When someone is gunned down in public, the murderer is usually easily spotted; a murder most likely committed by another forensic scientist, by someone who knows how the police will look for evidence, makes for a tougher search.

PD James was herself a civil servant, working in hospital administration and then for the police mostly in criminal policy. Her wonkiness is not appreciated by all readers but it brings a different perspective to police procedurals. She would probably have been a stickler for the rules as was Dr. Lorimer. She obviously also enjoys looking at a murder — the before & after — through the eyes of all involved. The changing points of view are not popular with many readers but it builds the characters & the ambience. These psychological explorations, incumbent on a good detective, make for a solid read, but not a “cosy” one!

I have discovered from reading others’ reviews that PD James is not for everyone. Her murders are not fast reads; you need to pay attention during these books. Bits and pieces of clues are coming at you all the time and if you are skimming, important information may be lost! But if you want intelligent writing built on the many facets of a murder, she’s your author.

Ah!, estos son los libros de P. D. James que me gustan más. Un policial del viejo estilo, con miles de potenciales sospechosos, cada uno con sus razones para el crimen. En este caso, el libro abre con otro crimen que marca el paso para el resto del libro, pero que no está relacionado con el argumento principal (o sólo tangencialmente).
P. D. James no da puntada sin hilo y al final, todo cobra sentido, incluyendo esos detalles insignificantes que aparecían por aquí y allá.
Imperdible.

This is an excellent Adam Dalgliesh mystery which borders on the outstanding. P.D. James has taken her usual care to create a memorable and distinctive setting for her story, a prestigious criminal investigation laboratory in the remote fen country of England. Most of her characters are similarly distinctive, but somehow she seems to present just two or three too many and I find myself halfway through the book wondering "Who is this person, anyway?" If it's part of her strategy to make the murderer less conspicuous by a lack of color, I must say it's not particularly satisfying.

Nevertheless, the level of the prose, the sensitivity of the central characters, the sympathy for the various devils of human conscience, and the forthright engaging storytelling combine in a compelling read, really just a little annoying for being so nearly great but falling short.

3.5 rounded to 4

I hadn't read a James book for awhile, and had forgotten how her use of many, many, many adjectives makes reading so tedious. The detailed descriptions of characters and locations felt like too much information. That said, the plot was interesting and I wasn't able to identify the culprit until the end. I wanted less minutiae to wade through!

This was a panic buy – pushed to my Kindle by Amazon’s algorithm late at night when I was already half asleep and had finished my last bedtime read.

How does the saying go? Act in haste, repent at leisure.

I don’t mind ‘internal dialogue’ (when the narrator reveals a character’s thoughts) – but when TWO characters keep doing it interchangeably, without warning and sometimes even in the SAME paragraph it can be quite disconcerting.

And descriptions. Okay, what folk look like – fair enough. But every building and every garden and the contents of every room! I believe this book could lose a third of its words and no one would notice. It is ponderous, tedious and over-written.

Characters. How many is too many? In marketing, proven by research, for the optimum balance of message and retention, the magic number is SEVEN.

In this book, by the time Commander Dalgliesh arrives on the scene to solve the crime, the reader has been introduced to 45 CHARACTERS. Yes, that’s FORTY-FIVE.

There is a Morgan, a Massey, a Mawson, a Mason, a Mallettt, a Martin … and when Massingham started to talk to Middlemass about the Muddington Murder I began to think the whole thing was one big practical joke on the part of the author.

To compound matters, the story is set in and around a forensic lab. Many of the characters have similar-sounding job titles, some of them extending to five words in their own right!

Much of the dialogue was wooden, robotic at times; witnesses sounded like they were reading from prepared statements. And yet there were other passages, later in the novel that were of an impressive literary quality, both in their language and philosophical content. Perplexing.

The plot. There was one, rudimentary – which I cannot spoil – because, I have to admit, a week after finishing I have forgotten it.

I love P.D. James, love her writing, and really enjoyed this book. However, the ending seemed a bit implausible and rushed.

I registered this book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/14754246

Murder in a laboratory.

Dr. Lorrimer was not loved. When he was found dead in the laboratory where he managed a section there weren't any mourners. There were many who wanted him gone.

But figuring out which of them had done the deed was no simple task. As it often is with P.D. James, the plot is complex and involves a fair number of persons, whom we get to know rather well. As does Adam Dalgliesh, who needs to find out which of them killed Lorrimer.

We get to track Lorrimer's relations with others in his lab, with persons on the outside, with those who are affected by his actions from a distance. PBS liked this one so much it became a small series on MYSTERY.

I'm afraid I found this rather lackluster despite James' reputation as a first-rate, literate mystery writer. It's the second book I've read by P.D. James, my first being the first Adam Dalgiesh mystery, Cover Her Face, which I found similarly unimpressive. I did think this mystery better constructed, one which, unlike that other one, held together with no holes I could find. But it's a rather unremarkable architecture, like a sturdy generic suburban house indistinguishable from others on the street.

The narrative flows well, and I did note James has a gift for rendering setting, and for conveying characters and atmosphere through their surroundings and possessions. She conveys pathos by describing a grease stain on a wall in one instance, or a sour smell of cheap perfume in another case. It's a fairly clean, readable style even if I don't care much for the author's tendency to bounce madly between points of view--even mid paragraph.

James did keep me guessing. In the first "book" of 80 pages or so she takes us through the points of view of several suspects, showing us various possible motives before a body is even found and until the end, she juggles the suspects and throws out enough red herrings to keep a reader wondering. In fact, I'd say too many red herrings. It strains credibility so many had such disparate motives all connected with this one lab.

However, when I compare James to my favorite mystery authors, she just doesn't shine to me. Adam Dalgliesh, competent and insightful as he may be, feels bland, and a background as a poet isn't enough to distinguish him. He doesn't have the flashy brilliance of a Sherlock Holmes, the comic touches of a Hercule Poirot or Amelia Peabody, the charm of a Lord Peter Wimsey or ability to endear of Mary Russell or Patrick Kenzie. There isn't here the jaw-dropping brilliant clockwork plot of an Agatha Christie, or the impact of Josephine Tey or ability to move me like Elizabeth George.

Maybe Dalgliesh, or the two novels with him I've read, don't display James' gifts at her best. But at this point I'm not inclined to read more. It's not a bad book at all--well-written and psychologically insightful and if I were the sort that read mystery books like peanuts, I might be picking up another. But this book isn't one to tempt me into reading more James when there are so many good books out there unread.

Complex psychological thriller set in a forensics laboratory with the saintly Adam Dalgliesh investigating the tangled relationships within.

I like the way she describes things - which is good because there's a lot of description in her tales. I think it's just enough without bogging down the tale.

This one is about a group of scientists working in a crime lab in a small village. There's a lot of human interactions that make nearly everyone a candidate for being the murderer. It's an odd mix up of people related to the victim and people who work with the victim, and the oddest ones seem to like him.

It's not the story though, as much as it's her skill with words that fascinated me. I can't say I ever feel close to Dalgleish. It's not that I care what happens to him that keep me reading the stories. It's just got to be the way she weaves a tale.