BitterSweetLife

A Flash Review (Mystery Books Strike Again)



P.D. James - A Mind to Murder, B

That’s right, this is yet another mysterious addition to The Master Book List. At some point I may get around to apologizing for the P.D. James mysteries that seem to be colonizing the intrepid List. It’s almost unseemly, I know, and somewhat embarrassing. Doesn’t a seminary student and self-ascribed “all round arbiter of the arts” have better things to do than read murder mysteries? Well, yes—that goes without saying. But the fact is, devouring the occasional Adam Dalgliesh case has become a crutch to support my academic sanity, which has taken to staggering around the apartment drinking excessive doses of coffee these days. But enough about me.

This quickie review is actually retrospective. After my spring 2005 semester, A Mind to Murder was the first true post-finals book to be consumed, and it went down fast. It makes a great deal of sense to read the books chronologically, as this, the second in the Adam Dalgliesh series, develops the melancholy, self-interrogative (some would say “human”) side of Dalgliesh which the first book merely hinted at. The story is complex, as usual, and even though I applied myself I wasn’t even near the quarry at the close. James completely threw me; the only consolation was that Dalgliesh, coincidentally, was thrown too.

James has an eye for the dark commonalities of human nature, the ugly motives that could rise in almost anyone. Human darkness seemed especially evident in this book, and I put it down with mixed feelings. Depressed? Saddened? But Dalgliesh’s stern dealings with evil and his critical self-awareness imply that we can do likewise.