Meh. P.D. James is a competent writer and puts together a reasonable mystery, but there's nothing exciting about it -- I felt like I'd read it before, honestly. The Kindle version has very bad formatting, too ("that" turns into "mat", for example); no one bothered to proofread it. None of the characters are particularly interesting to me -- again, I seemed to have read all about them before, in other crime novels.

I think I had the same reaction to another P.D. James book, so maybe I just don't care for James' work.

Really a 3.5 ... I enjoyed this quite a bit. Murder and disentangling stories. My first PD James, won't be my last. Cindy Rollins' told me they're a touch dated; just like I like my books.

Stephen said very loudly, ‘Cover her face,’ but Mr. Hearne reminded him that we had better not touch anything more until the police came.

The debut appearance of Detective Chief-Inspector Adam Dalgliesh.

https://youtu.be/Sv_PfBEdh_Q

The aristocracy gets its knickers in a knot when a newly hired servant girl gets murdered. The victim appears to egg on the slings and arrows of outrageous misfortune as much as the other staff, family, and friends. It shows the arrogance of both low and high birth. Only Dalgliesh seems to have the intelligence to know and understand that prince and pauper are brought into the world the same way. The members of both the victims family and the family that hired her treat greed as their own deserved lot in life.

Having not read a mystery since I was in the sixth grade, I decided to peruse James’s first published one, with the idea that if I liked it I would read the next published one about Adam Dalgliesh, detective. I see perhaps why I stopped reading the genre when I did. The mystery writer must erect a carefully constructed scaffolding: plot, one that is airtight, yet interesting, leading the reader down a number of paths yet winding up, usually, with a surprise. Characters can be interesting, but their actions must serve the needs of the plot. Well, I never thought of her! Well, of course you didn’t, because the author led you away from believing it might be she.

The title, Cover Her Face, has significance in that it is only mentioned on page eighty-five, a point at which the person who turns out in the end to have been the murderer is shaking uncontrollably, as the body is first discovered. The person’s son tells someone, “Cover her face.” One of the author’s first acts of subterfuge, to draw us away from the real killer. In this novel, a maid, a woman who has been hired from the nearby home for unwedded mothers, as they were delicately referred to in the last century, is found dead in her bed, her toddler still alive in his crib. James devotes individual chapters to each suspect, and, admirably also explores who might have done it by having the reader observe several conversations among the suspects, away from Detective Dalgliesh’s presence. And, of course, there is the obligatory conclusion, where Dalgliesh gathers everyone into one room where he begins to unpeel the onion of suspense.

Слабо

This seemed quaint and charming for a minute and then I got bored out of my mind.

Уж класическа криминална история от провинциална Англия, която трябва да се чете леко и приятно, а вместо това или аз бях твърде разсеяна по време на четенето, или П.Д.Джеймс не се е справила особено добре. Почти през цялото време се обърквах кой герой кой беше (защо, по дяволите, трябваше да използва едва ли не всеки път различни имена - ту собственото, ту фамилно име, или да представя техни действия, постъпки и мисли без очевидна връзка с контекста на ситуацията). На всичкото отгоре интригата и обратите в сюжета бяха пресилени, а детективът - представен повърхностно и неаангажиращо. Не успях да го опозная, камо ли да ми стане симпатичен.

I read this book EONS ago but had totally forgotten the plot, the mystery and the killer, so it was truly like reading it for the first time. Now I'm interested enough to reread more of my books by this author. If you haven't read it, go get a copy. It's a great book, a great mystery, filled with enough suspects and red herrings to keep the most avid mystery fan interested through the entire book. I thought I had it figured out but I was so off the mark it wasn't funny.

brief summary, no spoilers

Sally Jupp is a very attractive, unwed mother who has been taken on as a maid in the Maxie household. Sally has come from a home for unwed mothers and lives at the house with her infant son. Every year the church holds an annual celebration (a fete); this year, the day after the proceedings finds Sally dead at unknown hands, behind locked doors. Adam Dalgliesh of Scotland Yard must figure out who killed her, but there are many motives and many suspects to rule out before he can do his job.

As I said, an awesome book, one I very highly recommend. Mystery readers, especially those who enjoy a good British whodunit, will really enjoy this one. It is NOT a cozy, so prepare to spend some time with it!

I'm beginning to think by some coincidence the very first PD James I read also happened to be the only interesting book she's ever written. Honestly, I would really like to like her, but I can't. n  Cover Her Facen is her first novel and I wonder how she ever became successful this way. It suffers from all the flaws I've found pervasive in her other novels – boring descriptions, unlikeable characters, and zero suspense. The mystery plot has a lot of painstakingly crafted red herrings and clues, but I just didn't care enough to be interested in the solution.

And I don't get the appeal of Adam Dalgliesh. Your star detective is supposed to have personality, so people want to read about him, you know. The only indication James ever gives that Dalgliesh is not a robot is that every now and then she'll have him think about his dead wife. But other than that, he is as flat as paper. The cover blurbs set him up as a rival to Ngaio Marsh's Alleyn, but um... being boring and mechanical is not actually the same as being cool and stoic. Sorry.

Afraid I'm done with PD James. Done done done.

Fifties of the last century. The sexual revolution is very close, which will sweep away or, at least, significantly correct the concepts of things allowed and not allowed in the sphere of sex, While good old England is a stronghold of morality, condemning everything that does not fit into the norms.

Nevertheless, a girl from among the "stumblers" (unmarried, with a baby) is accepted as a maid in a respectable estate. The owners are not even confused by the fact that a woman with a small child is not the best possible candidate, and Sally lives up to their expectations. She is a wonderful mother and an excellent worker: sweet, understanding, efficient, respectful. Until the evening when he announces to the employer that from now on he will live in her house in the position of not a servant, but a daughter-in-law.

Whether Sally Japp was a naive and innocent fly or a spider who was unlucky enough to get entangled in her own net, the reader will have to find out under the wise guidance of detective poet Adam Dalgliesh.

Мошки и пауки
- Лицо ее закройте, мои глаза ослепнуть могут
Столь юной умерла она…
- Не думаю. Несчастие ее,
Что прожила она так долго.
Вебстер "Герцогиня Малфийская"
Пятидесятые прошлого века. Совсем близко сексуальная революция, которая сметет или, по крайней мере, существенно откорректирует понятия о дозволенных и недозволенных в сфере пола вещах, Пока же старая добрая Англия оплот морали, осуждающей все, что не вписывается в нормы.

Тем не менее, девушка из числа "оступившихся" (незамужняя, с младенцем) принята горничной в респектабельное поместье. Хозяев не смущает даже то, что женщина с маленьким ребенком не лучшая из возможных кандидатур, и Салли оправдывает их ожидания. Она прекрасная мать и отличная работница: мила, понятлива, расторопна, почтительна. Вплоть до того вечера, когда объявит работодательнице, что отныне будет жить в ее доме на положении не прислуги, но невестки.

А следующим утром случится то, что выведет на сцену детектива-поэта Адама Дэлглиша - сквозного персонажа Ф. Д. Джеймс, знаковой фигуры английского детектива. Не получив высшего образования из-за нехватки средств, и вынужденная содержать собственную семью, когда муж вернулся со Второй Мировой больным, она завершила жизнь офицером Ордена Британской империи, Пэром палаты лордов и баронессой. Список достижений говорит сам за себя

Если вы уже успели познакомиться с Дэлглишем, продолжать можно с любого места, серия романов о нем организована без выраженной личной линии детектива, как у Несбё с Харри Холе, например. Если нет, то самое время свести знакомство, тем более, что "Лицо ее закройте" дебютный роман звезды классического детектива.

Убийство Салли Джапп погружает нас в атмосферу британского поместья, где традиции и ритуалы играют не меньшую роль, чем сотню лет назад, а плетение отношений между персонажами образует сложный узор с юной красоткой в центре паутины. Была она наивной и невинной мушкой или паучихой, которой не повезло запутаться в собственной сети, предстоит узнать читателю под мудрым руководством Адама Дэлглиша.

Аудиоверсия романа прочитана Игорем Князевым, если вы любите его исполнение так же, как я - не пропустите.

It had a few “first book in a series” issues - like she hadn’t decided who her protagonist was yet but surprisingly modern feeling.

Quite boring and with a rushed end.