Why do I keep reading James when she annoys me? Well, because when she’s good, she’s very good. Isolated scenes in this book are terrific: the Dalgliesh interviews with Fredrica Saxon, Louise Fenton, and Nagle in his studio; the tension (and the cat) during the climactic scenes; even the Committee meeting, which reads like a short novel by C. P. Snow. She obviously knows this milieu very well.

Still, the first half is rather ramshackle, the detection seems miraculous, and the murderer unconvincing. It’s missing another rewrite. And I am too hard on her. But she’s very good. When she’s good.

On second thought, I will round this one up to four stars.

After enjoying P.D. James' later novels in the Adam Dalgliesh series, I decided to work my way through the entire series. In this novel, the murder happens immediately, and then Dalgliesh shows up and starts interviewing the suspects. That's fine but the story didn't capture my interest at that point since I wasn't invested yet in the characters. I only really started to enjoy the novel after the first of second CD when the interviewing section was over.

I've come to enjoy P.D. James's detective fiction because of the amazing job she does in characterization. This novel has the rich characterization, but you have to wait for it. I agree with other reviewers that Dalgliesh isn't so interesting at this point, but having read some of the later novels I know the best is yet to come.

I don't like it when I give low scores but well, I am not on the Dalgliesh bandwagon yet.

Reading these books in order will hopefully prove to be interesting but for now, the reading of the 2nd book came a little too early after finishing the first. There was a complete change in scenery but still, the characters could be swapped out between books without any problem, they all sounded exactly the same. Also, Dalgliesh doesn't seem to be integral to the story at all. It could just as well be an anonymous detective. The only thing connecting the two books is an obviously doomed romantic relationship with one of the previous suspects.

Re-reading all of PD James in publication order has been an interesting experience. James famously did not publish her first book until she was over 40, and as I'm reading, I'm seeing she didn't hit her stride until farther into her career. Comparing this book to her later works, it's clear she's still working on her craft.

All that being said, this to me read like a classic British whodunnit mystery, and I like that kind of thing. And, even though I haven't read this for years, I did remember who committed the murder, so it was compelling enough to leave an impression with me. James's character construction is my favourite part of her work, and while this is by no means the best of her work, it's still better than that in many other mysteries. There's also a good puzzle of howdunnit as well.

If you're looking for a classic mystery, you could do a lot worse than picking this up.

A piercing scream, shattering the evening calm, brings Superintendent Adam Dalgliesh hurrying from his literary party to the nearby Steen Psychiatric Clinic, where he discovers the body of a woman sprawled on the basement floor, a chisel thrust through her heart.

Seriously, make a cue card for all the characters first.

Okay, the story of a woman who works in a medical facility (psychiatric, circa 1962 where lysergic acid (LSD) treatments are de rigueur) is brutally murdered - with a chisel, no less! - in the records archive on the basement floor. Yep, it starts with that, isn't too-graphically presented and we're left with the handsome and urbane Adam Dalgliesh, and his assistant Martin, to sort it all out.

This kind of a story lends itself to talking, some more talking, and even more talking. To all those who work at the facility, and some of the patients, and then some of the workers' or patients' relatives, friends, spouses, lovers and so on. This is how police work often goes: talk, talk, talk and eventually somebody will spill the beans. (After withholding them for umpteen pages.) This is a very literal story, page by plodding page, and IMO not one of Ms. James' best. However, for sheer intricacy and a look at the early 1960's era, it's a treat. (Seriously early 60's is as different from late 60's as is a muddy, froggy swamp from a saltwater bay of leaping dolphins.)

I'm going to admit I did get lost due to the sheer volume of characters, plus I'm not the type to 'stop and think' etc., as I read. I did understand the basic story, and got the bad guy/girl right! (Hurray!) Another criticism: Ms. James often leaps from OMNI to a more concentrated POV, as in a single character. Also, there's very little of Dalgliesh's 'back story' here, though what there is, is compelling.

In conclusion, just three stars or a C+. I read many of the later books when I was older, set in the 80's or 90's, and thoroughly enjoyed them. It's some of the earlier novels that I missed, so I'm trying to work through them. I'll keep going.

Three stars.

3.5 É um policial que se inscreve na categoria "whodunnit ?", muito ao estilo inglês e na linha de Agatha Christie - todos têm algo a esconder, todos são suspeitos. É um desafio à capacidade de análise e dedutível do leitor. Também gosto do inspetor, da forma como a personagem está construída. Neste 2° volume da série avança-se um pouco mais na sua história. Em comparação com os policiais modernos, sentimos falta de ação...

Killer Clinic
Review of the Vintage Canada paperback edition (2011) of the Faber & Faber hardcover original (1963)

n  At the other end of the square, Superintendent* Adam Dalgliesh of the Criminal Investigation Department was attending the ritual autumn sherry party given by his publishers which had coincided with the third reprint of his first book of verse. He didn't overestimate his talent or the success of his book. The poems, which reflected his detached, ironic and fundamentally restless spirit, had happened to catch a public mood. He did not believe that more than half a dozen would live even in his own affections. Meanwhile he found himself awash on the shallows of an unfamiliar sea in which agents, royalties and reviews were agreeable hazards. And now there was this party.n

I started a binge re-read of the early P.D. James Adam Dalgliesh novels when I recently discovered my 1980's Sphere Books paperbacks while clearing a storage locker. After finishing Cover Her Face (Adam Dalgliesh #1 - 1962) I realized that I did not have a copy of A Mind to Murder, the next entry in the series. Fortunately I was able to source a nice copy of the 2011 Vintage Canada paperback.

Cover Her Face held back quite a bit on introducing Adam Dalgliesh and did not even mention his being a poet. A Mind to Murder brings him on-site almost immediately, only part-way into Chapter One when he is called away from a party at his publishers to a nearby murder scene at the Steen Clinic, an exclusive psychiatric treatment centre. The Chief Administrator has been found murdered in a basement file room and there are multiple suspects, including the doctors, nurses, secretaries and custodians.

P.D. James adopts a trademark style of revealing quite a lot about the inner lives of the suspect characters through inner monologues & scenes without the investigators, including the various possible murder motives that they might have. It seems fairly evident early on that one individual is the wrong 'un of the pack, but James manages to keep you guessing throughout, and then even pulls out a complete surprise at the very end, even to the point of fooling her lead detective.

I'm quite enjoying getting reacquainted with P.D. James and Adam Dalgliesh and look forward to the next books in the series.


Cover of the Sphere Books paperback edition (1985). Image sourced from Library Thing.

Trivia and Links
* In 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.

A Mind to Murder was adapted for television in 1995 as part of the long running Dalgliesh TV-series for Anglia Television/ITV (1983-1998) starring actor Roy Marsden as Chief Detective Inspector Adam Dalgliesh of Scotland Yard. You can watch the entire episode of the 1995 adaptation on YouTube here. NOTE: The adaptation differs considerably from the original novel.

The new Acorn TV-series reboot Dalgliesh (2021-?) starring Bertie Carver as Adam Dalgliesh has not yet done an adaptation of A Mind to Murder (Dalgliesh Book #2). It has not been announced which books are being adapted for Season 3 (as of early August 2023). Season 1 adapted Books 4, 5 & 7. Season 2 adapted Books 6, 10 & 12.

Comments on re-reading this book for the first time in decades:

If I thought this book was written later in P.D. James’ Adam Dalgliesh series, I might have been disappointed in it. Knowing that it was only the second had me giving it something of the benefit of the doubt. Sometimes authors seem to take a while before they hit their stride with a series. For instance, if I had started Louise Penny's Gamache series (which I adore) with the first book rather than in the middle, I might not have continued. Initially she didn't seem to know quite what she wanted to do with her characters; that came in the third book if I recall correctly.

Getting back to this book: It's definitely not as good as some of the later entries, but enjoyable nevertheless. In truth, back when it was first written (and even when I first read it about 10 years later), there just weren't that many mysteries featuring detectives with inner lives, and where the author clearly took delight in, well, writing! And it may be that remembering James as an iconoclast of that era inclines me to be more generous in my responses than I might have been otherwise.

As always, I adored her characterizations. The people in this novel, regardless of how annoying they may be, nevertheless jump off the page. Even though they are 60 years in the past, they seem quite vivid to me.

And I found the plotting enjoyable as well, especially Dalgliesh's sense of foreboding over successfully identifying and arresting the killer, in contrast to the ultimate outcome of the story.

I'm glad I took the opportunity to revisit PD James via a group read of this book. I'll have to remember to pick up another volume at some point. I still love her writing.

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I am a huge PD James fan and enjoyed revisiting this book. It must have been 15 years since I originally read it. I had suggested her books to my husband when he was looking for an audiobook and so I can now reread PD James in audio form. While in some ways this book could be said to be dated, in other ways it is strangely up-to-date. James always comes across as the most level-headed person. She brings this sense of strength to her mysteries. There is nothing cozy here.

Although P.D. James has for years been a favorite writer of mine, I have to admit that this book was not one of her best. It may have been me, as I was a bit distracted while reading it, but the pages that describe Adam Dalgleish's questioning the various suspects seemed interminably long and the basic solution seemed obvious.

The administrator of a posh psychiatric clinic in London has been murdered; the setting is the early 1960s, so electro-convulsive and LSD treatments are a couple of the clinic's offerings, in addition to other therapies. (Not that these had anything to do with the plot; I just had to keep reminding myself that the book is more than 50 years old.)

No one liked Enid Bolam much, with the possible exception of a woman whom she had helped to get a job at the clinic; of course, I suspected this woman right away. Silly. Even though Miss Bolam had few admirers, few of the staff or doctors had a real motive...with the exception of one person. Unfortunately, "whodunnit" didn't seem like much of a surprise to me, but in true James fashion, there are twists and turns throughout the book to keep things reasonably interesting.

And, of course, Adam Dalgliesh is one of my favorite detectives in fiction. A widower and poet in addition to being a thoughtful and sensitive policeman, he is an admirable figure...and one of the disappointments of this book is that we don't really get much of a sense of who he is.

Nevertheless, you could do worse than to spend hours in his and James's company; in a world of so many good detective fiction writers, she was one of the best and Dalgliesh is her finest creation.

Very reminiscent of Agatha Christie’s work. P.D. James really does demonstrate the same mystery writing skills that Christie did. She lays out the crime and all the various suspects and then sets Dalgleish and Martin among them to sort things out. Two police cats amongst the psychiatric pigeons. Just like Poirot, Dalgleish is able to see through the clutter to the heart of things. Unlike Poirot, he is able to do so without being annoyingly self-satisfied.

Perhaps because I just recently read Christie’s They Do It with Mirrors, set in a juvenile reform school, this novel seemed similar. In fact, they were written within a few years of each other and share the institutional settings and “closed room” aspects to the stories. James throws plenty of details of the psychiatric setting at the reader, using them as distractions from the usual motivations for murder.

As I said when I reviewed the first Dalgleish novel, I see this detective as one of the sources of one of my favourite policemen, Armand Gamache, Louise Penny’s main character. Which reminds me, I need to track down the next book in that series too.