“An Unsuitable Job for a Woman” by P.D. James

Foreign Reader — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 19:26:39 +0000

Bernie Pryde is dead. To avoid the hardships of living with cancer and going through the treatment he preferred suicide. He leaves his private detective agency to Cordelia Gray, his business partner. What is Cordelia to do with it?

She doesn’t seem to have much choice. She has to run it, to try and earn some money with it. She is all alone in the world, a young girl who never knew a mother, a daughter of a left politician who cared little for his father’s duty, a maverick raised by nuns. Now that her father is dead and her only friend and boss is dead too, she has only herself to rely on.

Yet everyone tells her that running a detective agency is an unsuitable job for a woman.

A tragic figure, Cordelia Gray. Left all alone in the world so young, with so little hope for the future, she fights for herself desperately, having no time for complaints. Her name is way too big, too theatrical for her. Her beauty is of no consequence. It’s her strength of will rather than her beauty, which is to save her daily and give her hope.

It’s up to Cordelia to run the main investigation in this book. But the author’s other favourite character, Superintendent Adam Dalgliesh, appears in it too. He’s often mentioned throughout the book – it so happens that poor Bernie was his huge fan, despite having been fired from the police by the perfectionist Superintendent. And at the end of the story Cordelia gets to actually meet him face to face…

But before that she needs to investigate the ghastly death of the young Mark Callender. He was found hanged in his little cabin, and his death was generally accepted as suicide, except by his father. So he hired Cordelia to look into the circumstances of his son’s death once again.

Cordelia did her job thoroughly… too thoroughly. She met an old Nanny, several young and merry Oxford students, an old doctor now safely out of his mind and therefore unable to tell her anything… but still a clue. She survived an attempt on her life – by a miracle. And so, step by step, she discovered the shocking truth, only to conceal it from the rest of the world.

But she couldn’t fool Superintendent Adam Dalgliesh…

The book feels a bit gloomy, which is not unusual for P.D. James. It reads in one go though. Having read it in translation many years ago, I re-read it in English last year, recognising the half-forgotten plot as I proceeded and feeling again that strong, stubborn and not at all feminine Cordelia would haunt me for days afterwards. I’m not sure I want to re-read the book again, but I might some day. This chaacter is drawn a little too thoroughly, too deeply for an investigator in a detective novel, but that’s exactly why this book stands out. It leaves a mixed aftertaste: not altogether pleasant and not exactly bad. Those who like detective stories with a little gloom and doom thrown around will love it.

I find it a pity that P.D. James wrote only two books about Cordelia Gray. This character had more potential – but she was apparently too fond of Dalgliesh (so am I). But I’m glad she wrote this particular book. It’s definitely worth the time I spent reading it.

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

Foreign Reader — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 14:08:13 +0000

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.

Foreign Reader Says » P.D.James

“An Unsuitable Job for a Woman” by P.D. James

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