P. D. James, The Private Patient
Nov. 11th, 2009 07:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ellarienWill this be the last Adam Dalgliesh mystery? It seems as though it may be meant to be, as though the author is bidding a fond and lingering farewell to the characters who have, after all, been around for considerably more years than they seem to have aged by.
There are some other slightly unusual things about the way this novel is written; for one thing, the murder victim (announced as such on the first page, so this really isn't a spoiler) is a POV character right up until the moment of her death -- which happens a long way into the book. Like most of the Dalgliesh mysteries, this takes place in a semi-isolated, rather upper-middle-class setting; in this case, it's a country house turned private clinic run by a sought-after plastic surgeon who employs a daughter of the original owners as a kind of housekeeper. There's a sinister stone circle next door, and the usual collection of cottages for suspects and detectives. After a high-profile investigative journalist is strangled in her bed while recovering from surgery, Dalgliesh and his team are called in to investigate -- which he does while meditating on the coming changes in his life and the changes in the country. (Actually, his take on the state of British policing was reminding me uncomfortably of Jo Walton's Small Change series.) There's a small side plot involving his fiancee and her friends that, though harsh in itself, seems mostly to serve to give the fiancee an excuse to show up from time to time and Dalgliesh a little scope for angst.
One of the characters is noted as having been reading a Terry Pratchett novel. In British terms, I suspect that isn't as strong a mark of character as it would be in the US, where Pratchett has never really made the mainstream -- and there's nothing fannish about the character in question. Slobbish maybe, but not fannish.
Something of a "special series finale" rather than standing entirely on its own merits, I think; atmospheric and readable, but not a good place to start.
There are some other slightly unusual things about the way this novel is written; for one thing, the murder victim (announced as such on the first page, so this really isn't a spoiler) is a POV character right up until the moment of her death -- which happens a long way into the book. Like most of the Dalgliesh mysteries, this takes place in a semi-isolated, rather upper-middle-class setting; in this case, it's a country house turned private clinic run by a sought-after plastic surgeon who employs a daughter of the original owners as a kind of housekeeper. There's a sinister stone circle next door, and the usual collection of cottages for suspects and detectives. After a high-profile investigative journalist is strangled in her bed while recovering from surgery, Dalgliesh and his team are called in to investigate -- which he does while meditating on the coming changes in his life and the changes in the country. (Actually, his take on the state of British policing was reminding me uncomfortably of Jo Walton's Small Change series.) There's a small side plot involving his fiancee and her friends that, though harsh in itself, seems mostly to serve to give the fiancee an excuse to show up from time to time and Dalgliesh a little scope for angst.
One of the characters is noted as having been reading a Terry Pratchett novel. In British terms, I suspect that isn't as strong a mark of character as it would be in the US, where Pratchett has never really made the mainstream -- and there's nothing fannish about the character in question. Slobbish maybe, but not fannish.
Something of a "special series finale" rather than standing entirely on its own merits, I think; atmospheric and readable, but not a good place to start.
