P. D. James always delivers. Enjoyed the character arcs and the realistic ending.

This book is like Sudoku in story-problem form. That means it's mostly full of tedious details, so the careful reader can deduce an answer. It's impossible to skim but not really gripping enough to read deeply.

I actually kind of like that James prioritizes the mystery over the aesthetic, so this doesn't sink into some kind of Philip Marlowe noire nonsense. Detective Dalgliesh isn't rugged or tortured or supernaturally brilliant. The murder takes place in a psychiatric clinic, but James never tries to make the tone spookier by making readers think that people with mental illness are creepy and crazy. It's about nearly-normal conflict among professionals within a bureaucracy -- the setting is almost incidental.

I also appreciated that James critiques the penchant of Dalgliesh (and readers) to overthink the motive and overcomplicate the plot.

Revisiting some classics in a mystery audiobook binge phase. This seems dated in some ways (treating psych patients with LSD! although I guess maybe that's making a comeback), and I tired of the emphasis on Dalgliesh's intelligence, but I enjoyed it.

I like reading P. D. James' books. They make you think and are not stressful.

Un peu trop de descriptions des vicissitudes d'un hôpital psychiatrique privé londonien, mais ça ne manque pas de charme dans cette ambiance d'après-guerre, avec toutes les mesquineries inhérentes à un circuit très fermé sur lui-même. Un bon thriller fort délassant.

War leider irgendwie kein richtiger Whodunnit, da es von Anfang an eigentlich nur einen (?) richtigen Verdächtigen gibt, der es dann auch war... Darum hat mir in dem Buch die Spannung etwas gefehlt. Dazu war die deutsche Ausgabe nicht überarbeitet und damit waren die Kapitel super lang und damit fand ich es nicht so gut zu lesen.
Dafür hat es wieder den für P.D. James typischen Humor gehabt und interessante Charaktere und ein spannendes Setting.
Trotzdem für mich insgesamt deutlich schlechter als der erste Band, darum 3,5/5 Sterne

I definitely liked this better than the first PD James I read last year. This one takes place in a mental clinic, the Steen, and I had an easier time of keeping track of the characters than I did in Cover Her Face despite the fact that there are characters with the same name.

I liked the small twist at the end- readers are meant to think that the porter, Peter Nagle, murdered Mrs. Bolam, but you find out at the very end that Nurse Bolam is the murderer; Nagle was just blackmailing her since he knew about the murder. Nurse Bolam did it for the money that she was set to inherit and had to kill her cousin before the older woman changed her will.

PD James has a tendency to ruminate for a while (something Christie doesn't put in her mysteries) but it's not bad, just an insight into each character - like the doctor who still is pulled toward his ex-wife or the new admin who has ambition.

Took me 6 days to read because it kept putting me to sleep.

It was a little odd after reading some of the later Dalgliesh mysteries to find some of these older ones, in which the early 21st-century guy is lower in the chain of command at the Met and is investigating with the newest and most up-to-date of early 1960s forensic methods. In this novel there are even patients receiving LSD treatment at a ritzy London clinic and no sense that the drug has, as yet, become recreational--a kind of pre-60s 60s! But this 'old/young' Dalgliesh is still a poet, still lonely and unsure about himself with women, still erudite, etc. I felt that the identity of the murderer was more or less obvious a little too early in this one (though there was a twist in some of the 'why'), but then I also felt that about the much later Death in Holy Orders. In general, I like the James books, even though the author is quite likely more socially and politically conservative than I will ever be. I am at the moment fascinated by the differences among the styles/tones of various writers who all seem to be of the rightward-leaning persuasion but to whom I respond with a huge range of emotion, covering everything from near-worship (Anthony Powell) to near-revulsion (Julia O'Faolain).

First half of the book was sooooo droll and dull. Truly a masterclass in patience and a will to want to know who was the killer.

The second half was much more interesting and it really picked up towards the end.

Wouldn’t recommend for anyone who likes fast paced crime, this was like watching an old lady sitting by the fire and knitting all night kind of a crime novel.

The second in the series and Dalgleish is just a little more human. Not exactly a police procedural but lots of interviews and a look from many points of view. Intriguing, particularly trying to guess motivations of staff of a psychiatric clinic. I do see why Dalgleish has become so well known over the years. On to #3.

Although the ending was ok, overall it was the most boring mystery novel I've read in my life.