P.D. James, who I believe it was Julian Symons nicknamed The
Queen of Crime, is best known for her Adam Dalgliesh series, about a dour
Scotland Yard inspector. But nearly forgotten amidst the popularity
of women writers like Sue Grafton and Linda Barnes is her
role as one of the creators of the woman private eye. Her Cordelia
Gray is the progenitor of many of the subsequent female sleuths.
Gray, is the parentless, friendless, very junior partner in a seedy investigative
firm. But when her mentor Bernie Pryde kills himself, leaving her
the agency and an unregistered firearm, she must fend for herself despite
her lack of experience, minimal training, relative physical frailty
and emotional isolation. The little she does know about investigative
techniques came to her second hand in the form of platitudes that Bernie
had learned from Dalgliesh during their brief time together, Pryde was
let go for lack of ability, with the Criminal Investigations Division.
With little hope of keeping the business going, Cordelia accepts a job
looking into the suicide of Ronald Callender's son Mark. In an American
mystery, you can usually follow Deep Throat's admonition and "follow the
money," or the Black Bird as the case may be. But in British mysteries,
money is seldom the motive, never the sole motive. The sallow complected,
snaggle toothed, tannin stained British are so psychosexually traumatized
by the time they've been thoroughly beaten and sodomized in prep school,
that the reason for the crime usually revolves around love, hate, jealousy,
or some other primal emotion. Moreover, the society is so insular,
socialist, class bound and stratified, that money won't do anyone much
good anyway. It's not like money will enable you to move up the social
ladder or escape a gothically conflicted family. But, no author is
better at portraying the hothouse environment of British society than James.
As the mannered Kabuki dance of English gentry life in manor houses and
university unfolds, Gray peels back the layers of the onion (there, that's
my entry in this month's mixed metaphor contest) to find that Mark was
murdered and the disturbing circumstances of his death.
I prefer my detective fiction a little more hard-boiled than James serves
it up, but this is still an excellent variation on the English drawing
room mystery.
(Reviewed:04-Mar-00)
Grade: (B+)
Websites:
See also:
P.D. James (
2 books reviewed)
Private Eyes
P.D. James Links:
-AUTHOR
SITE: P. D. James (Random House)
-Featured
Author: P. D. James: With News and Reviews From the Archives of The
New York Times
-BIO:
PD JAMES (1920-) (Guardian)
-INTERVIEW: A Mystery of Iniquity (Modern Age) (PDF)
-INTERVIEW:
Reasons for writing - detective novelists P.D. James (Trudy Bush,
Sept 27, 2000, Christian Century)
-ESSAY:
A case for P.D. James as a Christian novelist (Ralph C Wood,
1/01/03, Theology Today)
-ESSAY:
Deep mysteries - christian liberalism in the works of P.D. James
(Ralph C. Wood, Sept 27, 2000, Christian Century)
-REVIEW ESSAY: Rapidly Rises the Morning Tide: An Essay on P. D. James's The Children of Men (Ralph C. Wood, Theology Today)
-ARCHIVES:
FindArticles > All Publications > Results for "p. d. james"
-ESSAY: Engendering the
Apocalypse: Contemporary Visions of the Apocalypse (Marguerite
Harkness, Virginia Commonwealth University)
-ESSAY: An
Empty Future? (Roberto Rivera y Carlo, Boundless)
-REVIEW:
of Children of Men (Walter Wangerin, NY Times Book Review)
-REVIEW: of Children
of Men (James Sallis, The Los Angeles Times)
-REVIEW:
of Children of Men (S. Mark Heim, Christian Century)
-REVIEW:
of Children of Men (Penni Crabtree, National Catholic Reporter)
-REVIEW:
of Children of Men (Molly Finn, Commonweal)
-REVIEW:
of Children of Men (Frederick Meekins, Junto Society)
-REVIEW: of The Lighthouse by PD James (LUCY HUGHES-HALLETT, Sunday Times of London)
FILM:
-FILMOGRAPHY: P.D. James
(IMDB)
-INFO: The Children of Men
(2007) (IMDB)
Book-related and General Links:
-ENCYCLOPAEDIA
BRITANNICA: "p.d. james"
-History
of Mystery: Phyllis Dorothy James (1920 - )
-INTERVIEW
: A mind to murder : PD James is the grande dame of British crime writing.
She's also a fully paid-up member of the great and good, with a taste for
shopping, Jane Austen and shortbread. (Amanda Mitchison, Daily Telegraph)
-INTERVIEW:
The Baroness of Quiet Murder (Nicholas A. Basbanes, Lit Kit)
-INTERVIEW:
The Salon Interview: P.D. James (Jennifer Reese, Salon)
-INTERVIEW:
PD James (Home Arts)
-AUDIO
INTERVIEW: P.D. James on the unlikeable victim: British mistress of
mystery P.D. James spoke to CBC Radio's 'The Arts Today' in 1997 about
her novel, A Certain Justice. Here she reveals why the murder victim in
her story is so unlikeable. ( CBC Radio 1999)
-Cordelia
Gray Created by P.D. James (Thrilling Detectives)
-P.D.
James Biblio & short reviews
-Women
of Mystery (Bookaholic)
-PROFILE:
It's about crime: And P. D. James has proved to be an expert on the
subject (BRIAN GORMAN, Ottawa Sun)
-ESSAY:
THE QUEEN OF CRIME: P.D. JAMES (Julian Symons, NY Times Book Review)
-ESSAY:
Cult of the Mystery: Rituals and Byways (AMY CLYDE, NY Times)
-ESSAY:
NO GORE, PLEASE - THEY'RE BRITISH (NY Times Book Review)
-ESSAY:
Women Writers: Coming of Age at 50 (Carolyn G. Heilbrun, NY Times Book
Review)
-ESSAY:
TELEVISION; Investigating the Darker Corners of The Criminal Mind
(MARILYN STASIO, NY Times Book Review)
-ESSAY:
THE HOMICIDAL MANIAC: A NOVELIST'S BEST FRIEND (Marilyn Stasio, NY
Times Book Review)
-REVIEW:
of ORIGINAL SIN By P. D. James (Michael Malone, NY Times Book Review)
-REVIEW:
of ORIGINAL SIN By P. D. James (NY Times)
-REVIEW:
P.D.James Original Sin (Tangled Web)
-REVIEW:
of A CERTAIN JUSTICE By P. D. James (Ben Macintyre, NY Times Book Review)
-REVIEW:
of A TASTE FOR DEATH By P. D. James (Robert B. Parker, NY Times Book
Review)
-REVIEW:
of A TASTE FOR DEATH. By P. D. James (Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, NY
Times)
-REVIEW:
of DEVICES AND DESIRES By P. D. James (Judith Crist, NY Times Book
Review)
-REVIEW:
of Devices and Desires By P. D. James (CHRISTOPHER LEHMANN-HAUPT,
NY Times)
-REVIEW:
of THE SKULL BENEATH THE SKIN By P.D. James (Julian Symons, NY
Times Book Review)
-REVIEW:
of THE CHILDREN OF MEN By P. D. James (Walter Wangerin Jr., NY Times
Book Review)
-REVIEW:
of THE MAUL AND THE PEAR TREE. The Ratcliffe Highway Murders 1811 By
P. D. James and T. A. Critchley (JOHN GROSS, NY Times)
-REVIEW:
of THE MAUL AND THE PEAR TREE The Ratcliffe Highway Murders 1811. By
P. D. James and T. A. Critchley (Thomas Maeder, NY Times Book Review)
TELEVISION:
-Unsuitable
Job for a Woman (Mystery, PBS)
-REVIEW:
of PBS version (Salon)
GENERAL:
-Dangerous
Dames: A Timeline of Some of the Major Female Eyes (Thrilling Detectives)
-The
Reader's Corner presents Female Sleuths
-ARTICLE:
The female dick: How three hard-boiled writers have retooled
the mystery novel for
women. (Jacqueline Carey, Salon)
Comments:
Orrin welcomes reader comments on his reviews.
Add yours here.
