Sigh: Commander Dalgliesh Solves Another Case.
“The Private Patient” by P.D. James
OK, I confess it, I am addicted to English Detective fiction. Given that revelation, how could I possibly not gush over this 14th. mystery by Dame P.D.James featuring the archetypical poet/detective Adam Dalgliesh? While I found the prose to be elegant and the narrative arc appropriately English, that is to say, patient, I was not satisfied. Despite deft descriptions and sentences of clarity overflowing with rhythm and rhyme, I had the sense that I had already visited Cheverell Manor–the scene of the murder–and knew many of the suspects. Indeed, at times I wondered if Commander Dalgliesh had questioned them in another novel.
I suppose I shouldn’t complain, there are just so many ways a murder mystery can evolve. However, one of the joys I derive from reading Dame James’ fiction resides in her carefully drawn characters. Unlike most American detective novels, novels that often roar quickly and violently from murder to resolution usually via the bedroom, P.D. James’ work has always allowed the reader to slowly but never completely “detect” the inner lives of victims, murderers, suspects, and investigators. I have the sense that Adam Dalgliesh and I discover more than who did “it”; we discover a sense of why these humans acted as they did. Unlike TV detectives who must work with time constraints, James’ novels have few epiphanies but rather, her investigators and readers slowly come to a full but not complete “sense” of things–less a forensic proof than an organic understanding.
The set-up of this story was elegant. Placing the murder in a plastic surgeon’s private clinic complete with the many machinations surrounding the “Manor” and its employees allowed the author’s interest in her character’s responses to change –physical, financial, and relational–to be showcased. Unfortunately, this is where the story comes up short. The characters were not so much flat or one-dimensional as they were simply enigmatic or undeveloped.
Much is made of Commander Dalgliesh’s upcoming marriage to the beautiful Emma and the frustrated love(?) for the Commander by his colleague Detective Inspector Kate Miskin. Yet, even in this side drama we see the actions but they seem at times mechanical or irrational or worse, expected. Perhaps, I am simply an old friend who demands more from these familiar characters than is reasonable–even in fiction where all things are possible it isn’t reasonable or even desirable to have complete knowledge about others or ourself. Or perhaps, as hinted at the end of the book, Commander Dalgliesh is, if not bored, ready to be done dealing with murder. Perhaps, Dame James is leading her long-time detective, the readers, and perhaps herself to the conclusion that a career shift or retirement is near.