I am going through a mystery/suspense phase, I guess. I tend to be a streak reader. If you follow my reviews, you will probably have noticed this.
P.D. James is one of my favorite mystery authors--you know I especially like police procedurals--but I have to be in the mood to read P.D. James because she's rather dark.
In this tale, starring Commander Adam Dagliesh, Adam inherits his aunt's windmill and the attached cottage on a sparsely inhabited stretch of Norfolk coastland. He isn't sure what he plans to do with it, but he takes some time off and travels there to stay for awhile, sort through the house and decide what its future will be. Of course, this book is a criminal mystery book, so while Adam is exploring his house, the coast, and getting to know his neighbors, there's a serial killer on the loose. Aaaaand lotsa other stuff going on. Because it's P.D. James and nothing is simple.
It was a good mystery with lots of diverse elements that all resolved themselves in the end. As usual in a P.D. James book there's at least one perverted sexual relationship, there's plenty of bleak scenery, Adam is pensive and thoughtful and a little conflicted, and there are a series of grisly and tragic murders. Every P.D. James novel is poetic, stark, richly worded (can both of those things be present in the same book?), complex and completely engaging. This was, as usual, an enjoyable read.
Bad language: mild and infrequent
Sex: several characters are having sex outside of marriage and none of it is pretty (or titillating). P.D. James only does sex when it's pitiful or perverted. And not detailed.
No comments:
Post a Comment