And one more ...
Mar. 27th, 2006 06:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ellarienP. D. James, The Lighthouse
Yet another Adam Dalgliesh mystery, elegant and atmospheric, in an isolated English setting. I didn't find it entirely satisfying, though. I've had the impression over the last few books that the Baroness is an old lady who finds it more and more difficult to keep her writing in tune with the modern world. She has a two-pronged method for dealing with this; choosing remote, old-fashioned settings where the modern world doesn't impinge much; and forcing in aggressively modern elements in an attempt to make the story feel topical. In this case, the 'modern' element dates the writing very precisely to about three years ago. Also, I can't help noticing that Dalgliesh has been detecting for more than forty years now, and seems to have stopped aging somewhere along the way. His adoring minions seem to partake in the same slowing to a lesser extent, and don't notice anything odd, but it's hard on the suspension of disbelief. It gets really jarring when he reminisces about an obviously pre-war childhood.
Yet another Adam Dalgliesh mystery, elegant and atmospheric, in an isolated English setting. I didn't find it entirely satisfying, though. I've had the impression over the last few books that the Baroness is an old lady who finds it more and more difficult to keep her writing in tune with the modern world. She has a two-pronged method for dealing with this; choosing remote, old-fashioned settings where the modern world doesn't impinge much; and forcing in aggressively modern elements in an attempt to make the story feel topical. In this case, the 'modern' element dates the writing very precisely to about three years ago. Also, I can't help noticing that Dalgliesh has been detecting for more than forty years now, and seems to have stopped aging somewhere along the way. His adoring minions seem to partake in the same slowing to a lesser extent, and don't notice anything odd, but it's hard on the suspension of disbelief. It gets really jarring when he reminisces about an obviously pre-war childhood.