“Shroud for a Nightingale” by P.D.James

A young student nurse dies during a demonstration in the Nightingale Training College – she acts as a patient, and two fellow students demonstrate intra-gastric feeding. The feed that is thought to contain milk turns out to be disinfectant, which makes Nurse Pearce’s death extremely painful. It happens in the presence of Miss Beale, the General Nursing Council Inspector – highly damaging for the reputation of the College, but otherwise it’s thought to be an ordinary murder – or even an accident – so Inspector Bailey from the local police force takes charge of the case. Only after another student nurse dies in her sleep – about a week later – the case becomes serious enough to call Scotland Yard, and Chief Superintendent Adam Dalgliesh enters the scene.

He solves the crime rather quickly – within a day actually – though it’s a long day for him, ending in an attempt on his own life. Amazed, he discovers that in order to understand the murderer’s motive he has to go back in time – twenty five years back, actually, to the time when the World War Two just ended and one of the victims hadn’t even been born yet. Twenty five years later that war causes another outbreak of violence – in Nightingale House.

The third murder follows, and though Adam Dalgliesh knows the name of the murderer, he can’t prove anything. This murderer is far more intelligent than the one guilty of the first two crimes and knows how to leave no evidence. Yet Dalgliesh is not the one to give up easily…

I must say I find P.D.James’s books a bit depressing, but, nevertheless, interesting. You might never want to re-read them (I did – but only to refresh my memory for the review), but they are worth being read at least once. The mystery will keep you thrilled, and, unless you are as clever as Dalgliesh himself, you’ll never guess the murderer’s name until you read the whole book. The characters are drawn with the precision of a true master – all different, and all having the right amount of Heaven and Hell in them – not even the victims portrayed as complete saints, or the murderers complete villains. They are just people, with everything that goes with it. And they are interesting, too – I’d like to meet some of them, and it’s a pity they aren’t real.

My absolute favourite is Adam Dalgliesh himself, a police officer and a poet – apparently, a genius in both fields. He sounds like a really decent person – a really honourable one. His knowledge of people is amazing; his understanding of duty even more so. He’s a perfect role model for a police officer, assuming perfection exists outside books.