The Private Patient (Adam Dalgliesh, #14)

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The Private Patient (Adam Dalgliesh #14)

by P.D. James

3.62 · rating details · 3,534 ratings · 712 reviews

Cheverell Manor is a lovely old house in deepest Dorset, now a private clinic belonging to the famous plastic surgeon George Chandler-Powell. When investigative journalist Rhoda Gradwyn arrived there one late autumn afternoon, scheduled to have a disfiguring and long-standing facial scar removed, she had every expectation of a successful operation and a pleasant week recup...more

Hardcover, 352 pages

Published November 18th 2008 by Knopf (first published January 1st 2008)

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Jan 24, 2009

Dorothy rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: police-procedurals

When you pick up a P.D. James mystery, you know that you are in the hands of a professional. Cleanly plotted, meticulously detailed, characters revealed layer by layer, hers are the epitome of the "British mysteries" in the tradition of the great Agatha. It is a tradition that I know and love.

"The Private Patient" is her latest entry in the saga of Commander Adam Dalgliesh of New Scotland Yard. It is a police procedural with, as usual, James' touch of humanism....more

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Nov 28, 2008

Rebecca rated it

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Recommends it for: Anyone who loves a great mystery.

I have been a fan of PD James forever and was sure that with her age, The Ligththouse would be her last Dagliesh novel. I was so happy to see that she had another story in her. I rated this 4 stars as much because I love James and her wonderful language. However, I didn't feel that it was her best book. I sensed that she needed to tie up a bunch of loose ends for her characters. Still, on a scale of 1 to 10, if PD James wrote a book that was not her best, it is still an 9 compared to other ...more

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Apr 19, 2009

Shane rated it

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I decided to read a detective genre fiction book after a long time. An investigative reporter checks into a private clinic to have a scar removed and is murdered - it sounded like a good premise to work from.

I have to credit James, almost ninety, with continuing to write competent police procedural books which peep into the lives of her suspects, criminals and detectives. And yet, I found several aspects that grated on me: the intruding concern for plot summations at various points ...moreI decided to read a detective genre fiction book after a long time. An investigative reporter checks into a private clinic to have a scar removed and is murdered - it sounded like a good premise to work from.

I have to credit James, almost ninety, with continuing to write competent police procedural books which peep into the lives of her suspects, criminals and detectives. And yet, I found several aspects that grated on me: the intruding concern for plot summations at various points of the story (more for the writer it seeemed, than for the reader), dialogue that seemed to be introduced for the sole purpose of providing information to the reader, the endless parade of characters and their physical descriptions - some essential to the central story, others connected with the private lives of the police personnel.

Sex seems a taboo subject for James, and hence several close relationships carry on without any indication that sex is part of the equation: Candace-Westhall and Annabel Skelton, Rhoda and Robin, Collinsby and Lucy,Chandler-Powell and Helena, even Commander Dalglish and his betrothed Emma. Decorum is also maintained in the descriptions of how people seat themselves before conducting any serious business, the taking of tea as a ritual that must be described even when a murder had just taken place, and the logistics of Dalglish's squad's operation during each member's personal down-time.

The story veered off from a whodunit to a howdunit with an epilogue on how-it-was-possible-to-do-it. The coincidences (a murder victim meeting a witness in London during the terrorist bombings, the same day she was supposed to be in the country signing a will - how realistic is that?) and the last minute introduction of characters who made significant contributions to the plot, gave me the impression that James was struggling to conclude her plot and called in the cavalry.

James is particularly keen to settle her squad in the end - marry them off, promote or retire them - perhaps, sending us a gentle hint that this is probably her last Dalglish book.
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Dec 04, 2008

Jessica rated it

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Shelves: mysteries

There's a reason P.D. James is a master of the well-worn English mystery genre, and The Private Patient is a good example of why. Superficially, this could come straight from Agatha Christie land -- a muckraking journalist checks into a country manor house that has been purchased by a plastic surgeon from the family that could no longer afford to run it for use as a luxury cosmetic surgery clinic, and is murdered the night of her operation. It soon is revealed that many members of the household ...more

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Dec 01, 2008

Migdalia rated it

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Recommends it for: to fans of mystery and great writing

Shelves: mystery-police-procedural

I cannot get a PD James Dalgliesh book without becoming totally addicted to it. I am never bored. I am never without anticipation and questions, and I am always heartened at the fact that the investigators have the same questions I have or are filled with the same curiosity. I will leave the plot summaries for the book covers and B&N website. It's enough to say that it's a typical PD James book: of the highest quality.

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Nov 28, 2008

Ed rated it

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Shelves: p-d-james

Of the three great post-modern talismans--race, gender, class--P.D. James has chosen class as the ongoing theme of her books, inteweaving discussions of the fine (or not so fine) distinctions shown by accent, birthplace and school into her terrific mysteries.

"The Pivate Patient" has been hoped for by her fans almost since the publication of "The Lighthouse", published in 2006, hit the shelves. James was 80 years old when she finished that one and we didn't know h...more

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Dec 12, 2008

Nette rated it

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I found this to be so leisurely -- pages-long descriptions of car trips through the countryside, detailed listings of the stuff in every room -- that I had to force myself to finish. But I'm giving it 3 stars because for God's sake, this woman is 88 YEARS OLD. I can barely find my car keys and she's still cranking out byzantine mystery plots.

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Nov 28, 2008

Dana Stabenow rated it

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Recommends it for: People who appreciate good writing.

Recommended to Dana by: Barbara Peters of the Poisoned Pen

I wrote this review for the Poisoned Pen's eNews:

What could be more English than a country house murder? In The Private Patient P.D. James summons up the shades of Conan Coyle and Agatha Christie in murder most foul of a patient at a stately country manor turned medical clinic. Means, motive and opportunity are all on offer for everyone on the premises, from the self-absorbed doctor, the idealistic assistant, the lovelorn nurse, the dispossessed heir and the devoted nanny to the ov...moreI wrote this review for the Poisoned Pen's eNews:

What could be more English than a country house murder? In The Private Patient P.D. James summons up the shades of Conan Coyle and Agatha Christie in murder most foul of a patient at a stately country manor turned medical clinic. Means, motive and opportunity are all on offer for everyone on the premises, from the self-absorbed doctor, the idealistic assistant, the lovelorn nurse, the dispossessed heir and the devoted nanny to the overprotective sister and the insular villager. Upon this menage descends Scotland Yard’s Commander Adam Dalgleish in usual deus ex machina fashion, and the game is afoot.

But here your conventional crime fiction novel parts ways with tradition to be elevated to the level of art by James’ firm-handed, faultless use of language, her layering of character, her evocation of setting, and above all by her merciless view of the present state of British civilization, warts and all. In James’ opinion, the view is mostly warts, and her Churchillian rage at what she sees as the deliberate debasement of English society since World War II from a culture that strove for excellence to one that embraces mediocrity wafts up from every other page. In places she really lets herself off the chain (“They had lived to see their simple patriotism derided, their morality despised, their savings devalued.”) without ever throwing the reader off the scent of the narrative.

The skeleton on which this ferocious indictment hangs is of course the murder and its solution, but even there James doesn’t go for anything like either a simple crime or a simple resolution, and lest we are so simple as to demand either James puts us--and Dalgliesh--firmly in our places by condemning our desire to know and understand the truth as “An arrogance and, perhaps, an impertinence.” The coda at the end deals fairly with all characters and even provides a sly note of hope for the survival of whom James undoubtedly regards as the fittest one of all. The Private Patient is a positively orchestral triumph, a literary symphony which lesser musicians, faint but pursuing, on their best days could never achieve, but to which they should always aspire.
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Oct 30, 2009

Black Elephants rated it

Shelves: fiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I planned to get lots of reading done over the holidays because I have quite a few books that are patiently waiting to be read. Yes, I said "are." They have not been read.

But that's the funny thing about the holidays when you're a bibliophile—people tend to give you books. That's not a bad thing, but it does add to the grand list of To-Be-Read.

Anyway, this review is about PD James' The Private Patient. If you went to your local Borders at all over the holidays,...moreI planned to get lots of reading done over the holidays because I have quite a few books that are patiently waiting to be read. Yes, I said "are." They have not been read.

But that's the funny thing about the holidays when you're a bibliophile—people tend to give you books. That's not a bad thing, but it does add to the grand list of To-Be-Read.

Anyway, this review is about PD James' The Private Patient. If you went to your local Borders at all over the holidays, you probably saw the book on its own pedestal. Despite its very ugly cover, it was really getting some publicity.

Here's what I know: PD James is a veteran writer with lots of titles under her belt. She is British, apparently compared often to Agatha Christie. Her books are also often dramatized by the BBC. The Private Patient is part of her Adam Dangliesh series, which I had never heard of before and assumed was similar to Christie's Poirot and Marple books

The mystery revolves around the death of Rhoda Gradwyn. While at a private clinic in an old English manor, she is strangled to death. Adam Dangliesh and his team are called in to solve the crime! YAY!

Not so much.

I skipped a lot of character development and descriptive chapters in this book because I just wanted to know who did it. I wonder if the reason I skimmed was because this was one of many Dangliesh books instead of the first. Precedent had been set. The author was writing to an audience who knew and wouldn't question her character's brilliance. But for me, who had never known AD, I found myself very annoyed that I got to know so little of him. Instead, most of the investigative chapters are written from the POV of AD's minions who are blindly loyal and love him. They say he's brilliant, but I never really saw it. Instead, the murder and its unfolding just seemed to happen from blind luck. AD and his team never really seemed to get their hands dirty.

Which brings us back to the murder victim who was more of a plot device than a character. James really made her interesting but never reveals her. She lets the dead keep her secrets. In fact, her secrets don't really have anything to do with her death. I think that's fine and all if you're Vladimir Nabokov writing The Real Life of Sebastian Knight, but not so much for a book that appeared to want to be a good, whodunit-and-why mystery.

Really, there are so many characters that there's no getting to know any of them or even time to suspect the suspects. You aren't really given much to go on, and when the real murderer is revealed, I was disappointed.

That doesn't mean there weren't surprises, like the surprise second and third deaths. All in all, The Private Patient is an OK read. I might be interested in reading an earlier Dangliesh novel, but I probably won't go looking for it.(less)

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Dec 29, 2008

Nat rated it

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I guess I'm channeling my mother (who died last year). She was an English teacher who loved to read P. D. James' mysteries. When I saw this on the shelf at Borders, I thought of her and bought it. Now I see why she enjoyed reading James' works. She is an excellent writer, rich and visual. Next time I read one of her books I will keep a dictionary at my side. What a fine way to increase my vocabulary! Of all the current murder/mystery writers active today, James is probably the best WRITER...more

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Oct 18, 2011

Lorraine rated it

Shelves: mystery, books-i-own, audio-book, 2011, re-reads

I've read some reviews saying that this was not as good as previous novels, but I liked it because I like P.D. James' writing. She has so many potential murders - everybody has something in their past that makes them suspect. This book takes place at a private hospital on the south coast of England where a famous writer has gone to have a scar removed from her face. That evening, groggy from the anesthetic, the lady is murdered. Dalgleish is called in at an inconvenient time (he had a weeken...more

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Feb 25, 2009

caitlin Richards rated it

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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Dec 05, 2008

Linda rated it

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Recommends it for: people who like PD James

I always enjoy this series, but I didn't think it was her best. The plot seemed a bit convoluted and while she tied a lot of personal ends up (for the characters), the actual mystery wasn't entirely neat. I suspect this may be the last in the series, although she doesn't specificaly say that.

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Jan 06, 2009

Mary rated it

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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jan 14, 2009

Elisha (lishie) rated it

Not James' best but still James! I liked the way she ended this novel. I did feel some of the extra information within the mystery was too much/padded. Also, Commander Dagliesh's life outside of the actual case felt disjointed but I still enjoyed the book overall.

Maybe it's me, but I felt like James' was "tidying" up the mainstay Dagliesh characters' stories to have somewhat of an end in case...
I also thought she was reflecting on death in the story (besides the actua...more

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Dec 03, 2008

Amy rated it

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Very consistent with the other Dalgliesh novels - I had to read this one a bit more slowly than usual because the author has taken a lot of time with her use of language. I will likely read this one again because the writing was so lovely and evocative.

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Feb 23, 2009

Missmath144 rated it

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Recommends it for: mystery lovers

Shelves: murder, mystery, crime

Adam Dalgliesh returns to solve the murder of Rhoda, an investigative reporter who goes to a lovely private clinic in the country to have an ugly scar removed from her face, a scar her drunken father inflicted upon her as a child and of which she said, "I no longer have need of it."

As usual with P.D. James, the book is beautifully written. What I don't recall in her previous novels are the occasional social commentaries. At 88 years of age, I guess she's ready to comment on...moreAdam Dalgliesh returns to solve the murder of Rhoda, an investigative reporter who goes to a lovely private clinic in the country to have an ugly scar removed from her face, a scar her drunken father inflicted upon her as a child and of which she said, "I no longer have need of it."

As usual with P.D. James, the book is beautifully written. What I don't recall in her previous novels are the occasional social commentaries. At 88 years of age, I guess she's ready to comment on the world around her: "She knew that already she had become used to viewing the wider world beyond the Manor as essentially hostile and alien: an England she could no longer recognise, the earth itself a dying planet where millions of people were constantly moving like a black stain of human locusts, invading, consuming, corrupting, destroying the air of once remote and beautiful places now rancid with human breath. . . . She would travel by boat, train, bus and on foot, leaving the shallowest of carbon footprints."(p. 348) "There are not enough students to justify a Clasics Department. I saw it coming, of course. They closed the Physics Department last year to enlarge Forensic Science, and now the Classics Department is to close, and Theology will become Comparative Religion. When that's judged to be too difficult -- and with our intake it undoubtedly will be -- then no doubt Comparative Religion will become Religion and Media Studies. Or Religion and Forensic Sciences. The government, which proclaims a target of fifty per cent of young people going to university, and at the same time ensures that forty per cent are uneducated when they leave secondary school, lives in a fantasy world." (p. 74-5) At another point, one of the characters ((Chandler-Powell) said that he had reconciled himself to the fact that England was no longer a free country, but couldn't they at least keep a free press. I found these little social commentaries of P.D. James interesting. Those were all there were in the entire novel; it wasn't as if the book were predominantly a social commentary. It was just a good read.(less)

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Jan 07, 2009

Diane rated it

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P. D. James is now in her 80s, yet she still continues to send Adam Dalgliesh out to solve murders. Dalgliesh, a detective who also writes poetry, is a dark and moody character, someone who, as an infant, survived the Blitz of London, even though his mother did not. It has occurred to me that Dalgliesh must be getting on in years, unless James has set her novels twenty years ago. In this novel, maybe feeling his years, Dalgliesh has decided it's time to settle down, quit the detective business, ...more

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Jan 05, 2009

Daisy rated it

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I only seem to update when I didn't really like a book, but maybe I just want to warn everyone. James started out as such a compelling mystery writer and her prose is still good, but her books have become more and more tedious over time. She's become, I think, far too enamored of her own regular characters and too much of the writing is focused, not only their thoughts and feelings, but of the minutia of their actions. I think it was almost page 200 before we read about an interview with a su...more

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Jan 10, 2012

Mark rated it

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Shelves: audiobooks

A new departure for me as I was listening to this on my journey last week to Liverpool as an audiobook. It meant as I wound my way through rural Dorset and up into Wiltshire and on up to Bath before finally getting on to the motorway if I got stuck behind those people who only seem to drive once a year and then always in front of me I didn't have the normal frustration that seems to ride personnified as a regular passenger on those journeys. Listening to a well read book made me a more patient d...moreA new departure for me as I was listening to this on my journey last week to Liverpool as an audiobook. It meant as I wound my way through rural Dorset and up into Wiltshire and on up to Bath before finally getting on to the motorway if I got stuck behind those people who only seem to drive once a year and then always in front of me I didn't have the normal frustration that seems to ride personnified as a regular passenger on those journeys. Listening to a well read book made me a more patient driver though I will not claim that it made me a better one.

As to the narrator. Michael Jayston was an excellent reader though some of his voices were so similar as to make them difficult to differentiate one from another and this meant it was oddly more stilted for me than if I had been reading it myself as I couldn't always relax into the dialogue because I was too busy concentrating so as to work out who was speaking.

Having said all that the story itself, an Adam Dalgliesh crime thriller, as with so many of James' works worked its way slowly and yet inevitably towards the murder of the aforesaid private patient. You know she will die after the first few sentences and this is reiterated on a regular basis. The inevitability, the doomladen nature of everything therefore hangs heavy. There were a large number of characters, the police characters being returning stars and then assorted prospective victims or assailants litter the early pages. James has a weird propensity to tier off her characters by their names. The posh ones are called things like Candace and Flavia and Annabelle whilst those from 'below stairs' are Sharon or some other more financially neutral one.

The characterization seemed lain on with a trowel in the sense that we were told what it was we were supposed to believe or see or grasp about the various characters by an authorial certainty and the subtlety which I remember from other Jamesian novels was absent. Investigatory cul de sacs and a few unnecessary plot complications that floated by were a distraction. There was a side story of a vicious sexual attack which jarred, not so much because of its content but because it seemed to serve no real purpose other than to give Dalgliesh's fiancee a walk in part midway into the novel.

There were all sorts of traditional PD James elements, flickering torchlight in the dark, dubious wills, a large quota of physically striking but morally unattractive people, intertwining histories and coincidences (including a character called Skelton, my surname, and that always gives me a childish frisson of pleasure; sad but true), and lots of people at the 'top of their respective fields'. This was not exactly a murder mystery by numbers but it was not the best I have encountered.

Listening to it read perhaps makes you more attuned to weird gripes but I noticed she used the word 'miscellany' on I think four occasions to describe mugs, garden tools, surgical instruments and another I forget. This might seem a ridiculous moan but it just seemed an odd restriction of vocabulary. PD James also has a habit of describing drinks being prepared, poured and downed to an almost obsessive degree. I had never noticed it particularly before hearing it narrated. Maybe these are swings and roundabouts to the audio book but on the whole this new departure was one i enjoyed and on long journeys I will indulge in it again. (less)

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Dec 22, 2011

David Clark rated it

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Shelves: fiction, detective-fiction

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 scen...moreOK, 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 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. 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.(less)

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Sep 26, 2011

Loretta rated it

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I've only recently started to read PD James, always been a Ruth Rendell fan. But Rendell can be very dark at times and leaves a sad taste. I do enjoy James's books and this seems to me to be a valedictory book...Dalgleish marries at the end and Kate gets back her boyfriend and all is neatly wound up. It was, as always a good story, beautifully written and interesting but it did get a tsd 'Midsomer Murders' towards the end which spoilt the elegance for me...I hate these bizarre murders . . . ...more

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Aug 11, 2011

Susan Anderson rated it

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Shelves: mystery, british-mystery

The Private Patient is P.D. James at her best, and I can't wait to say it, so I will: I am a huge mystery reader, and a P.D. James fan, and, for what it's worth, this is the very first time I've gotten lucky and guessed the perpetrator.

The story begins when an investigative journalist has elective surgery to remove a facial scar, and recuperates at a clinic in a fictional town in Dorset where, after undergoing a successful operation, she is murdered. Adam Dalgliesh, along with Kate Mis...moreThe Private Patient is P.D. James at her best, and I can't wait to say it, so I will: I am a huge mystery reader, and a P.D. James fan, and, for what it's worth, this is the very first time I've gotten lucky and guessed the perpetrator.

The story begins when an investigative journalist has elective surgery to remove a facial scar, and recuperates at a clinic in a fictional town in Dorset where, after undergoing a successful operation, she is murdered. Adam Dalgliesh, along with Kate Mishkin and Benton-Smith, is called in to investigate. In the end, the team discovers the perpetrator but not before another is murdered and an exciting chase ensues.

Although I did at some point guess the murderer, there were enough suspects to keep me guessing until, I can't remember exactly when in the novel, but I just put my chips on the table and decided who did what (but not exactly why).

The reader, I think, has pity in the end for the antagonist, especially toward the end of the novel when the antagonist's past is revealed in a way that makes the character truly memorable. And anyway, the mystery of a mystery is not first and foremost about who done it or why they done it but more about the mystery of penultimates, or, at least, those questions in life worth pondering: why do we do what we do and why do people die and how do the big events of our life carve us out and change our direction.

Some readers I talked to thought it was a difficult book to get into, but I loved it, although I did not warm at first to the first victim, the character was so exquisitely and carefully chiseled out of words, the prose so pleasing, that the reading of it was a joy. Syntax impeccable throughout. Dalgleish masterful as always. Kate Mishkin too. Benton-Smith in this one too. Not only a mystery, but a real study in death, and, for me, the book became a memorable experience of how catastrophic events change people's lives, as well as the inability to really uncover truth. And like little Santa presents, there are surprises in the end for all.

If you love reading a classic British mystery that's deeply character driven, this one's for you.

There are those who say that the book is evidence that P.D. James's powers are diminished—don't believe a bit of it. If anything, she only gets wiser. If I could, I'd give it 4.7 stars, but I cannot give it 5 stars, since only God and The Murder Room get a 5.(less)

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Feb 11, 2011

Katie rated it

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This is the first novel I have read written by P.D. James. While it did not stand out to me in any way, it was a decent read (or a decent listen, actually) while cleaning my new apartment. I get the sense that she is a skilled writer capable of slightly better writing, so I am eager to read more of her work.

This police procedural mystery is the 14th outing in a series center around police commander Adam Dalgliesh. While I'm sure I would have benefited from reading the series from ...more

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Aug 27, 2010

Sara rated it

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To my mind, P.D. James is just about the best mystery writer today, and all the more remarkable because of her age. Her mysteries take on the feel of literature rather than genre, as the characters struggle with the basic human vices, always resulting in murder. Her premier detective, Adam Dalgliesh, is familiar to anyone reading any of the earlier books. Personally, I've read them all. He's evolved greatly over the years we've been with him, a man of many fascinating sides.

As to...more

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Jun 04, 2010

Laura rated it

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Recommends it for: Bettie, Hayes

Shelves: audio-books, suspense-thriller, read-2010

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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May 23, 2010

Bruce rated it

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This is another of P.D. James’ Adam Dalgliesh mysteries, the first I’ve read in a few years. I have found that they have always engaged me, although perhaps the more recent ones felt as if they were becoming a bit formulaic - maybe I’d simply read too many in too quick succession. At any rate, beginning The Private Patient I was again reminded of how perceptive James can be, how her interpersonal insights are often acute, especially regarding the subtleties of intimate relationships. And I wa...more

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Feb 09, 2010

Don rated it

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I've been a fan of James for years, and look forward to reading each new entry into this series featuring the Scotland Yard detecitve Adam Dalgliesh. However, this, her most recent book to be released in paperback, was a serious drag. It wasn't the page-turner good detective novels should be, the actual detecting and puzzle-solving work in the book was extremely light, and the resolution disappointing.

For me, James' strength has always been in her ability to efficiently build profi...moreI've been a fan of James for years, and look forward to reading each new entry into this series featuring the Scotland Yard detecitve Adam Dalgliesh. However, this, her most recent book to be released in paperback, was a serious drag. It wasn't the page-turner good detective novels should be, the actual detecting and puzzle-solving work in the book was extremely light, and the resolution disappointing.

For me, James' strength has always been in her ability to efficiently build profiles of half a dozen possible suspects in the murder that lies at the heart of each book. She develops the characters better than most every other writer in this genre with whom I am familiar. Unfortunately, she doesn't apply her strength to good use in this book.

This is essentially about a murder in an isolated setting, with about 6 people who had opportunity. Although over the course of the book 3 of the characters are treated as possible suspects, only 1 really has any sort of motive. Typically in James' novels, as the investigation proceeds, information about the deceased and/or certain of the circle of suspects is revealed which deepens and broadens the mystery; here, very little of such development occurs.

The most disheartening feature of this book is that it is dreadfully padded. The paperback edition runs 350 pages and, frankly, it should have come in around 250. James has taken to providing full descriptions of virtually everything that takes place, from the meals eaten by each of the 3 Scotland Yard detectives to the details of their private lives and of their travels to and from London and Dorset (where the crime is committed). Virtually all of this description serves no function in terms of the plot and could have been edited out with no impact whatsoever on the story. It is included presumably in a misguided effort to add bulk to the tale and to provide "color". All that this extra text does, however, is slow the pace down in a most irritating manner. Frequently, as I was reading, I found myself skipping whole passages to get to the point. All of this makes the book drag. For instance, Dalgliesh and his team don't even arrive at the crime scene until page 116. Characters who play extremely minor roles are given extensive descriptions. For a character whose sole function in the story is that another character--a peripheral witness--borrowed his car and, consequently, he directs the detectives to that other witness, James describes in detail: the detectives' car journey to his house and a detailed description of the location and of him; this involves 3-4 pages of what could have been handled in 2 paragraphs.

Let me finally add the complaint that, in this book, as well as the most recent several books in this series, James spends a good deal of time on the personal lives/backgrounds of Dalgliesh's two supporting detectives. However, their actual roles in this book are modest; they discover relatively little significant information on their own. I wonder why so much time and effort (on James' part and necessarily on the part of the reader) continues to be devoted to developing them as characters when their appears to be no payoff. By contrast, Elizabeth George does the same thing in her series of detective novels also set in England, but different entries in her series actually feature these various characters. James never seems to turn her secondary detectives into the focal point of her novels; Dalgliesh remains the dominant figure in each.

This tendency to pad the novel with unnecessary detail is not unique to James. I find that more and more genre writers are writing longer books as a result of the inclusion of masses of unnecessary detail. I guess that writers and publishers in genres like this feel the need to publish "fat" books. Most copies of these books are sold for summer vacation or beach reading, and presumably, consumers want to feel they are getting their money's worth. I find the accretion of irrelevant description in these books to reduce the level of enjoyment, and I am disappointed to see that James, who has always been a superior stylist in a genre that doesn't generally reward style, has succumbed to this.

To sum up, I found what should have been a page-turner to be slow moving and difficult to finish. While that can be acceptable in certain kinds of novels, it is a real problem for what should be a fast and easy read.(less)

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Jan 01, 2010

Gerald Sinstadt rated it

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Sometimes one simply has to swim against the tide. So here I am resisting the undertow from thousands of P D James fans.

There was a time when the classic 'English' mystery story could maintain a grip. The staple props, country manors, locked rooms, plodding policemen, brilliant detectives, earned their devotees. If Agatha Christie became almost a caricature of herself, John Dickson Carr, Ngaio Marsh, Dorothy Sayers and others carried the torch. It came as a surprise to someone who ...more

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Dec 08, 2009

Nicola rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: own, arc

Reason for Reading: I'm a fan of P.D. James.

Summary: Rhoda Gradwyn goes to an exclusive manor, which houses a plastic surgery and recuperation facility, out in the English countryside to have a large scar on her face removed, one she has had since childhood. The morning after the operation she is found strangled to death in her bed. Being only one of two patients, a nurse, an assistant doctor, a small household staff, and a couple of on property live-ins the suspect list is limited. ...moreReason for Reading: I'm a fan of P.D. James.

Summary: Rhoda Gradwyn goes to an exclusive manor, which houses a plastic surgery and recuperation facility, out in the English countryside to have a large scar on her face removed, one she has had since childhood. The morning after the operation she is found strangled to death in her bed. Being only one of two patients, a nurse, an assistant doctor, a small household staff, and a couple of on property live-ins the suspect list is limited. Adam Dalgliesh is called along with his partner Kate to solve the death of this famous investigative journalist.

Comments: It has been a while since I've settled down with Adam Dalgliesh and what a delight it was! James continues to write the quintessential British mystery, taking place in a house full of people where one them must be the murderer, and she both keeps the old-fashioned air to it while at the same time keeping it modern. There are many times when one really has no awareness of the time period, old stone cottages, an old manor way out in the country, bicycling instead of using the car, with nothing intrinsically modern standing out and yet we know the time is the present as people simply answer their cell phones, go to print something off the computer, speak of DNA, etc.

James takes time to build her story, the first 100 pages or so are about the murder victim's life leading up to her murder. Adam Dalgliesh is a thinking man. He and his officer's ask questions, take statements and at the end of the day get together and piece together what they've got so far over coffee or wine. You won't find the hero running through the woods trying to capture the killer in this book. No, you'll find yourself baffled with the explanations, trying to figure out 'whodunit'. Then a second murder happens and suddenly all your theories are thrown out the window but AD doesn't seem fazed. He picks up the pieces and starts putting them back together.

A very enjoyable mystery. I was shocked in the middle but by the time the reveal came at the end I'd figured it out too, but that didn't lessen my enjoyment. I really enjoy reading gruesome serial killer mysteries but sometimes there is nothing like sitting down with a master mystery writer such as P.D. James and experiencing not just a brilliantly crafted mystery but an intelligent one as well, written with James' wonderful command of the English language. I found myself reading sentences twice just because I like the way they are written. A very good book, but not for those who expect a quick, wild plot. The Private Patient is more for those who like to figure out an intriguing puzzle while getting to know an assortment of eccentric characters. (less)

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P. D. James is the author of twenty books, most of which have been filmed and broadcast on television in the United States and other countries. She spent thirty years in various departments of the British Civil Service, including the Police and Criminal Law Department of Great Britain's Home Office. She has served as a magistrate and as a governor of the BBC. ...more

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The Private Patient (Adam Dalgliesh #14)

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