A melange of love, murder and philosophy.
Very different but as compelling as ever. This time P D James gave her readers a frisson of contemporary fiction with her mind to murder. So much in this novel. Apart from a very unusual murder - well two murders - there are several sub plots and some fascinating characters bringing social comment, personal philosophies and of course troubled love lives and backgrounds. The author herself as usual inserts much comment about the state of education, the police and the justice system all hampered by targets and state interference. Long sentences finely crafted with beautiful prose and several new words to look up in the dictionary make this an intriguing study. Benton-Smith brings a dash of spirit, sometimes over enthusiasm, whilst Kate Miskin is cool and calm as ever, a little over cautious perhaps. AD - what can one say? Charming - but not much emphasis on his poetry this time. I suppose all authors feel it incumbent upon them to include some jargon - moral compass? Not sure this was anything more than a bit of infilling and carbon footprint is becoming too repetitive. Not sure of the rape scene either. It didn't lead me anywhere. That apart - and they're such small criticisms - I think this is James at her full strength. Why do I feel this might be AD's last case? I hope not. If you miss this it will be your loss.
A disappointment
Same old dated backdrop and a collection of cold fish characters, who lack passion and emotion to such a degree they come across as cardboard characters. Dalgleish is joyless and too controlled. Give me a detective with a dash of humanity and its flaws! I didn't grasp the solution to the murders but had ceased to care by that stage of the book. The prose is superb though and on several occasions I did pause simply to savour a particularly clever or poetic comment or turn of phrase.
A Beautiful Curiosity
P D James has always been a great stylist. She writes with a beautifully unfussy elegance; her characters are always given depth and her descriptions of landscapes and buildings display a rare gift for the telling detail and the striking metaphor, but in this, her latest work, the detail and the fine writing somehow take centre-stage at the expense of the plot. The murder mystery - the death of the investigative journalist Rhoda Gradwyn while staying in a private clinic - is almost incidental to the descriptions of the gothic pile in which the sinister events take place, the people inside the building and the haunting circle of stones just outside the grounds. It's a curious state of affairs, especially when one considers that the murder mystery is essentially solved without too much of an input from Dalgliesh and his colleagues.
And yet, for all the strangeness of a murder mystery in which the solving of the murder is almost an incidental concern, this is an excellent novel. James is brilliant at portraying human beings in all their messy, confused, emotionally bewildered complexity. Rhoda Gradwyn isn't at all likeable, and yet the scene in which Dalgleish has to break the news of Gradwyn's murder to her mother is incredibly moving. Commander Dalgleish himself always remains, in public, the model of quiet control and authority and yet the news that his fiance has recently seen an old flame sends him tumbling into the realms of jealousy and self-doubt. No one is portrayed in black and white, everyone is a shade of grey.
I've read most of James' books and I've always found them thought-provoking, beautifully written and enjoyable. They make fabulous comfort-reading, the sort of books one reads over the Christmas holidays, and I always come away from her books with a renewed affection for Dalgleish and an increased regard for James' qualities as a writer. I suspect The Black Tower will always be my favourite among her novels, simply because it is one of the most beautifully sustained reflections on the fragility and beauty of life that I have ever read, but each of her novels offers something to admire and The Private Patient is no exception. Forget the almost incidental nature of the crime's solution and instead just wallow in a masterclass of character, atmosphere and descriptive writing. P D James is one of our best writers and while I wish she had broken out of the crime genre a little more often (I wish she had written a ghost story because with her gifts for conveying an unsettling atmosphere I'm sure it would have been superb) I still look forward to each new novel from her in a way I rarely do for other authors. Buy a copy, settle in for a few winter nights and enjoy.
Good plot, shame about the characters
I always read each of P D James's books as it is published and quickly come to the same conclusion each time: although her books are well-plotted, she has a rare talent for populating them with characters that it is very difficult to relate to, whom we never really get inside the skin of, and who are universally dislikeable.
Dalgliesh, Miskin and Benton are far too cold and clinical - they either spend time focussed 100% on the case or else they ruminate on their personal lives in isolation. We never see them let their hair down, enjoy themselves or exchange the odd irreverent or humourous comment that is the difference between a robot and a human being.
Maybe the only poignant moment is when the potential suspect whose car was seen near the standing stones is recounting events that happened many years ago, concerning a modern-day character and her sister. I'm being a bit vague here to avoid spoiling the plot, but anyone who's read the book will know what I mean.
At least the last few Dalgliesh books have had the added dimension of the relationship between Dalgliesh and Emma Lavenham, but as with so much of James's writing, it comes across as relationship-by-numbers.
And P D James leaves one crucial question unanswered: why does the victim say that she "no longer has need for" the scar that is removed by the surgeon at the clinic? If James had no intention of answering the question, why did she make her character utter this irrelevant throwaway line in the first place?
Give me Frost, Morse, Wexford, Banks or Diamond any day: they are interesting characters whom I could happily spend an evening chatting to over a glass of wine or a pint of beer. I fear that an hour in Dalgliesh's company would pass very slowly and be exceptionally tedious.
The Consequences of Love and Its Lack in a Novel Where Crime Outpaces the Investigation
Adam Dalgliesh fans will feel wonderfully rewarded by a deep and long look at his work in diligently investigating this case while attempting to balance his life to leave room for his love of Emma Lavenham. You'll end the book wondering about how that balance might change in future books. These thoughts in many ways make for a better mystery than solving the murder.
The Private Patient is more about love, its effects, and the harm it costs to not receive and give it . . . than about crime, detection, or justice. As with The Lighthouse, Baroness James has created deeply etched new characters while turning her on-going characters into ever-more real seeming personalities.
While many novelists are only too quick to paint a victim as harmless or harmful and bump them off, Baroness James gives us a complex portrait of a woman, investigative journalist Rhoda Gradwyn, whose youth scarred both her face and her psyche. As a result, she uses her slashed face as a mask to hide behind . . . and to keep people away on her own terms. She becomes good at ferreting out the secrets of others and displaying those hidden scars for a large pay day.
With the death of her abusive father and her mother's plan to remarry, Gradwyn realizes she doesn't need the scar any more and seeks one of the most expensive and highly regarded plastic surgeons, George Chandler-Powell, to repair her face. But she decides that there might be stories involved, and her meddling brings forth counter forces that lead to her death.
Strangled in her patient suite, steps from the nurse's bedroom, it begins to appear that an insider is involved. But no one remembers meeting Gradwyn before. What's the motive?
AD is dispatched to work on the case shortly after a call comes from number ten. Why is this case so important?
The murderer wore gloves so forensic clues aren't going to solve this case. Carefully examining opportunity and motive should narrow down the list of suspects. But more events occur faster than AD can untangle the clues he uncovers. As a result, the book is more of a crime story accompanied by a police procedural where the detective trails the killer too slowly rather than a classic mystery in which the brilliant detective solves everything by pulling a rabbit out of the hat.
The story is a gripping one involving lots of memorable characters, sympathetic and unsympathetic motives, and damaged personalities ill equipped to deal with human stress and conflict. To me, the best crime and mystery books are as well developed and interesting as a well-written novel . . . independent of the mystery. By that standard, this is an excellent book.
I found it annoying to have the police investigation be so ineffectual. It made the book seem a bit pointless in a way. I graded the book down one star to express by disappointment in this regard.
You, however, may not mind . . . in which case this will be a clear winner for you.
