Death in Holy Orders: An Adam Dalgliesh Mystery: 11

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Many authors certainly write with confidence, but it is generally misplaced confidence; not so with James.) The book starts with finding the dead body of Ronald Treeves, a young theology student at St Anselms. Ronald died climbing a sandy cliff which fell suffocating him. The coroner deemed his death as suicide, Ronald a prominent man is not happy with the ruling and asks Adam to investigate. I also wasn't sure I believed the murderer's motives at the end. There were so many red herrings in this novel. From the award-winning master of literary crime fiction, a classic work rich in tense drama and psychological insight. To add to the message, the fellow priest who pushed for exposure and prosecution is demonised: 'a priest hounding a fellow-priest into prison? It would be disgraceful if anyone did it. Coming from him it's abominable. And Father John [the paedophile] - the gentlest, the kindest of men.' Er, no, Ms James, this isn't 'hounding' but reporting a crime that the church would rather have covered up. What is 'disgraceful' and 'abominable' are the ideas that the paedophile should be left to continue his predations among children.

Commander Adam Dalgliesh of New Scotland Yard has been asked by Sir Alred Treeves to take a closer look into the suspicious death of his adopted son Ronald, who suffocated under the cliffs near St. Anselms by an avalanche of sand. Was it an accident, suicide, or murder? Dalgliesh, the son of a rector, has former ties to the school - as a young teen, he spent several happy summer holidays there among the priests and ordinands. Listened to the audio version of this; read the book soon after it was published in 2001. I've gone through all the Adam Dalgliesh mysteries and remembered this as one of the best. But, now, on a second round, I was distracted by other things in the story. Despite that, everyone except the 'baddie' who is murdered loves him, including Dalgleish himself and his new love interest so James makes it very clear that we as readers are supposed to side with them: as one character says 'He pleaded guilty to misbehaviour with two young boys. He didn't rape them, he didn't seduce them, he didn't physically hurt them' - so in James' world and that of the book, a bit of covert fondling and illegal touching of young boys is perfectly fine - he might not have 'physically' hurt them, but any psychological trauma from being assaulted by their priest is airily waved away. I hate to offer a negative review - but someone has to stand up and say something for children who have been sexually abused - particularly by clergy! It is amazing that anyone, seeing heartbreaking stories of sexual abuse of young people, would allow such an apologetic to be published. It will give Jerry Sandusky and the like something to read while in prison. It appears to have been a natural one, though in this case the reader already knows for certain that it was not.

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Character development suffers, particularly on the part of the hero, commander Adam Dalgliesh. The reader comes to be more enamored with the (rather perverse) sub-characters than with the protagonist. In spite of a good tale, and vivid characters, I couldn't get beyond, (nor should anyone) the defense of child abuse, ("it was only fondling") and the vilification of someone who "dug up" more victims. The fact that the story is so well done makes it worse, in that it carries some legitimacy to the idea of abuse being minimal. The subtext of abuse was not primary to the story, but it was definitely central - you couldn't miss it. No one would permit an defense of racism or rape or any other illegal and immoral activities. James, as she always does, manages to invest even a simple mystery novel with a depth and intelligence that few in her trade can match." - Marcel Berlins, The Times In this story, Dalgliesh is asked to go to a seminary near Norfolk to look into a previously closed death. A young ordinand had been found dead at the base of a cliff. The death is deemed to be death by accident. The young man's father wants Scotland Yard to investigate. Since Dalgliesh is about to go to the area on vacation so he agrees to look into the case. It also turns out that as a child, his father being a parson, that Dalgliesh spent time at St Anselms and it becomes somewhat a visit into his past. Ms James has always made it clear that she has no time for all this namby-pamby PC rubbish and her high Tory sensibilities have in the past taken swipes at the disabled, the working class especially women, Jews, any woman less than 'ravishingly beautiful', but her skewed view of sexual assault on children is breathtaking.

Its strength might be tenuous and its path convoluted, but when he traced it, it would lead him to the heart of the mystery. Dalgliesh visits Saint Anselm's in a semi-official capacity to follow up the death of a student some time previously as the student's father was not satisfied with the verdict. Whilst there, a visiting archdeacon is murdered. Dalgliesh is assigned the investigation, summoning DI Miskin and DI Tarrant from London to assist, as well as local officers. Initial suspicion falls on one of the priests who run and teach at the college, as the archdeacon was known to be recommending the closure of the college. Nowhere in the first section does James seem merely to be going through the motions, but in the later ones she falters very occasionally, giving in to trite and unnecessary predictability in stray sentences and explanations:

The acting was first class, especially Jesse Spencer character Raphael Arbuthnot. I had only ever seen him in Neighbours. His English accent was very convincing and his acting on whole was nothing short of superb.

The conclusion -- the final, full explanation -- and the small ray of hope for Dalgliesh's personal life that are presented in the brief, final section seem almost a bit much -- though James does get away with it (just). The only main theme one can pull from this rather pretentious little novel is that pigs do not stink. It seems as though the author is a pig enthusiast and can't bear the thought that so many people think they have an unpleasant odor. The end result is a sombre, serious novel about guilt, remorse, responsibility and death. (...) She believes that, just as the strict sonnet form can contain great poetry, a traditional detective novel can bear the weight of a serious moral theme. I think so, too, and found this one absorbing and provocative. But it's not light entertainment." - Jessica Mann, New StatesmanReligious overtones? - Yes Any non-mystery subplot? - religion Crime Thriller - Yes Murder Mystery (killer unknown) - Yes Main Character Gender - Male The solutions -- and the various explanations of the other oddities and unusual behaviour and events -- are all quite well handled. It is not only nature that undermines the College: the Church is apparently looking to close it down, and then events at the college itself reinforce the sense of inevitability of this. Dalgliesh, James’s master detective who rises from chief inspector in the first novel to chief superintendent and then to commander, is a serious, introspective person, moralistic yet realistic. The novels in which he appears are peopled by fully rounded characters, who are civilized, genteel, and motivated. The public resonance created by James’s singular characterization and deployment of classic mystery devices led to most of the novels featuring Dalgliesh being filmed for television. James, who earned the sobriquet “Queen of Crime,” penned 14 Dalgliesh novels, with the last, The Private Patient, appearing in 2008. I was a little surprised when I turned on this Inspector Dalgleish and found out that he is now Martin Shaw and not Roy Marsden. Worse yet, after making the character of Dalgleish so popular, P.D. James apparently told someone she likes Shaw better. How's that for gratitude.

P. D. James, byname of Phyllis Dorothy James White, Baroness James of Holland Park, (born August 3, 1920, Oxford, Oxfordshire, England—died November 27, 2014, Oxford), British mystery novelist best known for her fictional detective Adam Dalgliesh of Scotland Yard. I usually lose interest half way through. I wanted to see this drama after buying the book by PD James and because i never got round to reading it. I decided to watch the drama. Die große Kunst der P.D.James ist jene der Differenzierung: Der naive Glaube an die Allmacht des Detektivs, die falsche Hoffnung auf die Wiederherstellung der durch Mord zerrütteten Ordnung, ist das erste, was dieser Kunst zum Opfer fällt." - Thomas David, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung There is expectation in the air, but there is no rush for events to unfold -- and it works very well that way.When Dalgliesh is about to leave for St. Anselm’s, he recalls in detail his earlier visits, including one at age fourteen when he fell in love with a fifteen-year-old girl, Sadie, for whom he wrote a poem (which he recites to himself). The occasion is so vivid in his memory that he remembers the specific date of their innocent tryst. James also describes his journey from London to Ballard’s Mere, some four hundred miles, at great length, with precise descriptions of the countryside: It is ruled an accidental death, but the possibility of suicide -- and, of course, of murder -- can not be excluded. Commander Adam Dalgliesh, who had spent three summers at St. Anselm's in his youth, offers to poke around. There is, in fact, an Arbuthnot resident at St. Anselm's -- Raphael, a student there, and the last of the Arbuthnots -- but unfortunately he is a bastard child, left by his mother at St. Anselm's doorstep as an infant.