47th out of 3,368 books
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7,794 voters
An Unsuitable Job For A Woman (Cordelia Gray #1)
by
P.D. James
Handsome Cambridge dropout Mark Callender died hanging by the neck with a faint trace of lipstick on his mouth. When the official verdict is suicide, his wealthy father hires fledgling private investigator Cordelia Gray to find out what led him to self-destruction. What she discovers instead is a twisting trail of secrets and sins, and the strong scent of murder.
An Unsui
...morePaperback, 256 pages
Published
April 3rd 2001
by Touchstone
(first published 1972)
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I'm torn about whether to give this 3 or 4 stars. I'll give it 4 now, and we'll see how that goes. Maybe I'll read more by her and then reassess it against her larger oeuvre. Anyway, I really liked this a lot. I used to read mysteries like crazy in high school, but somehow I never read P. D. James. Pity. Her work has all of that typical coziness of the British mystery, but because the main character is a private eye, it doesn't strain credibility like Miss Marple or something, constantly stumbl...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
This was my 4th PD James novel. The protagonist of this book happened to be Miss Cordelia Gray, unlike the other three, where the protagonist was Adam Dalgleish, James’s much celebrated policeman.
I am not a big fan of P.D.James as I find her book too literary for my taste. I hate when the author of a crime fiction uses up half a page to describe the weather or the birds on the trees. And, I had the same problem with her other novels. However, in this book, although the same descriptions were pr...more
I am not a big fan of P.D.James as I find her book too literary for my taste. I hate when the author of a crime fiction uses up half a page to describe the weather or the birds on the trees. And, I had the same problem with her other novels. However, in this book, although the same descriptions were pr...more
This is the first PD James’novel I've read and therefore I'm unable to compare it to her other books. Although written in the 70s, tech apart, it didn't come across as dated. In some ways it reminded me of the first of the Millennium Trilogy. Both novels feature a family member who, dissatisfied with a police investigation, instruct someone outside the police to reopen the case, only to open a can of worms instead with all that entails.
The narrative structure was very easy to follow and I knew w...more
The narrative structure was very easy to follow and I knew w...more
I read this for a Goodreads book club and enjoyed it, as I do almost anything English. I instantly liked Cordelia Gray, so confident and self-possessed. I have yet to fully understand her motives, but am looking forward to getting to know her better through subsequent books.
Below is the comment I posted to the English Mysteries book club discussion:
I find myself continuing to think about Cordelia and wondering why she made the choices she did. It would be interesting to have additional backgrou...more
Below is the comment I posted to the English Mysteries book club discussion:
I find myself continuing to think about Cordelia and wondering why she made the choices she did. It would be interesting to have additional backgrou...more
The book opens on a dismal day when Cordelia walks into her dusty detective agency office to discover that her senior partner and co-owner , Bernie, has killed himself.
Cordelia has now become the sole owner of this extermely non-profitable business. However, soon enough, Sir Ronald Callander, an upcoming scientist, hires her to take a closer look at his son’s death, Mark Callander. Mark disappeared from Cambridge and took an unlikely position as a gardner with the Marklands. Within a few months...more
Cordelia has now become the sole owner of this extermely non-profitable business. However, soon enough, Sir Ronald Callander, an upcoming scientist, hires her to take a closer look at his son’s death, Mark Callander. Mark disappeared from Cambridge and took an unlikely position as a gardner with the Marklands. Within a few months...more
No spoilers.
A wonderful mystery that grabs you from the first page. James' descriptions of characters make them immediately three-dimensional, and you are pulled along with Cordelia Gray as her invisible Watson. I found Cordelia to be a very real character and although the book was published in 1972, it's still mostly timeless. The idea that everyone seems to think detective work is unsuitable for a woman shouldn't ring as true today, but it does. And every young woman (and perhaps man) finds...more
A wonderful mystery that grabs you from the first page. James' descriptions of characters make them immediately three-dimensional, and you are pulled along with Cordelia Gray as her invisible Watson. I found Cordelia to be a very real character and although the book was published in 1972, it's still mostly timeless. The idea that everyone seems to think detective work is unsuitable for a woman shouldn't ring as true today, but it does. And every young woman (and perhaps man) finds...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
What happens when a very sharp woman finds herself in partnership with a failed detective only to discover that the detective was never quite what he claimed to be? What happens when that same failed detective commits suicide and leaves that detective agency to that same woman? Can she operate under the methodological standards her deceased partner has given her, vicarious words of wisdom from James’ other protagonist, Chief Superintendent Adam Dalgleish?
My impression is that a very satisfying...more
My impression is that a very satisfying...more
This is not P D James at her best. There are so many great detective books by this author but this is not one of them.
This follows a young woman, Cordelia Gray, who is asked to investigate the suicide of a young man who was a student at Cambridge. She is asked to try to find out why he killed himself by the father.
(view spoiler)...more
This follows a young woman, Cordelia Gray, who is asked to investigate the suicide of a young man who was a student at Cambridge. She is asked to try to find out why he killed himself by the father.
(view spoiler)...more
This first book in a series features DI Dalgliesh, but mainly from the wings. He only plays a cameo role, but he is mentioned many times. However, it is really the story of a young woman in the 70s who is having to make it in the world on her own. Despite her social isolation, she is caring and is willing to use her intelligence as well as her looks to further her cause. The book is full of the culture of the day, when young women were raised to do the washing up, make tea, and not challenge men...more
Re-reading the first Cordelia Gray novel, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year (2012). James only wrote one other Gray novel, THE SKULL BENEATH THE SKIN (1982) - she was so distressed by the changes made to the character for the TV series made from it that she felt the character was no longer "her" character, and put Cordelia aside permanently (James's name doesn't even appear on the packaging for the DVD of the series - it just says "From the creator of Adam Dalgliesh").
This is a re-...more
This is a re-...more
P.D. James creates images and scenes. This is my second read of this book (first was decades ago) and the language of the book is still the most important part. James' characters are flawed as they all are, but this book was too tidy. Unique for the time it was written, in terms of topics, but there is a heaviness to the person of Cordelia which I hadn't remembered. She seems so burdened by something and not just the suicide of her partner. Using the 'suicide' of the son as a link for her to res...more
Where I got the book: my local library.
My first shock of this review is checking Wiki to see where this novel comes in P.D. James's oeuvre and discovering that P.D. stands for Phyllis Dorothy. Let me just take a moment.
*clears throat*
Now where was I? Right. The second shock was discovering I wasn't all that impressed. I thought I liked P.D James. Have I changed or is this the Death Comes to Pemberley effect?
Anyway, I find that this was James's fifth novel. And indeed the writing is that of a sea...more
My first shock of this review is checking Wiki to see where this novel comes in P.D. James's oeuvre and discovering that P.D. stands for Phyllis Dorothy. Let me just take a moment.
*clears throat*
Now where was I? Right. The second shock was discovering I wasn't all that impressed. I thought I liked P.D James. Have I changed or is this the Death Comes to Pemberley effect?
Anyway, I find that this was James's fifth novel. And indeed the writing is that of a sea...more
I'm not usually one for mystery novels, but this one caught my eye. The story begins with the suicide of Bernie Pryde, owner of the Pryde Detective Agency, which then falls to his 22-year-old partner Cordelia Gray. Her first mystery to solve on her own involves the suicide of Mark Callender, found hanging by his neck in the cottage to which he'd recently moved to work as a gardener after dropping out of university. It was an interesting look at life in the 1970s, with characters who seem so aloo...more
It's interesting when crime writers have a clear lead character that they love, and decide to branch out into a different one along similar genre lines. Val McDermid transitioned from reckless PI Kate Brannigan to impotent psychologist Tony Hill and sexually frustrated Carol Jordan, and here James transitions from the poetic detective inspector Adam Dalgliesh to the ingenue PI Cordelia Gray. You might have sensed that the two authors went in opposite directions.
A PI has the benefit of not having...more
A PI has the benefit of not having...more
Nov 26, 2009
Graceann
rated it
2 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Hard-core PD James fans only
Shelves:
mystery
Cordelia Gray is on her own with her detective agency. She has bills to pay and no new cases in sight. Then an elegant woman turns up and asks if Miss Gray will assist in her employer's quest to determine what caused his son to kill himself.
It took me quite a long time to determine what era this book was meant to be placed in. Until Cordelia mentioned having grown up watching television, I assumed from the situations, attitudes and styles of the characters that it was somewhere between the Wars...more
It took me quite a long time to determine what era this book was meant to be placed in. Until Cordelia mentioned having grown up watching television, I assumed from the situations, attitudes and styles of the characters that it was somewhere between the Wars...more
Reading this book was a pleasure. However it did expose my lack of acute concentration, if not my imagining. There was one place in the book where I could do with some exactitude, that is the detective in the well part. Unlike many cozy, and English mystery books, there are quite some prurient quips lying about. Many of the physical traits of the supporting cast are confidently described. P.D. James is some writer.
This book is one of the least domestic crime books I've ever read. The heroine l...more
This book is one of the least domestic crime books I've ever read. The heroine l...more
This was a great airport read. It's both a quick read and an interesting one, where James feels a need to develop her character as much as the mystery (though she also takes time to remind readers of her mainstay, Adam Dalgliesh, throughout). The book is steeped in suicides, or at least that's how it seems -- Cordelia Gray inherits a detective agency after the suicide of her partner, and is quickly called upon to investigate the circumstances of another. It's her first real case, and her inexper...more
Apr 30, 2010
Lobstergirl
rated it
2 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
mystery-thriller,
fiction
Here we are, it's P.D. James's fifth novel, and one would hope to see writerly progress being made. More substantial plots, more fully fleshed characters. I want James to expand beyond the stale, misanthropic souls who people her books (Dalgliesh excepted). I feel a little iconoclastic saying this, because James is one of the more revered mystery writers. "...even minor P.D. James characters are fully realized, given a pedigree, a school background and an attitude toward life," says the New York...more
Having heard good things about P.D. James I had high hopes for this novel; I was disappointed. I love the placidity you get in British mysteries: Characters of all shapes almost fatalistically accept death, suspicion, attacks in the night, ribald sexuality, deception, and all other manner of human vices. If ever you witness hysterics, there's always a remedy hand, be it a strong cup of tea, a stiff drink, or a firm slap in the face. This novel gave me all that. The tone is terrifically British....more
My first P.D. James novel (and also the first book I finished in our bright and shiny new decade), An Unsuitable Job for a Woman is precisely the type of crime novel that I can really get behind: ample backstory and character development, rich setting, sordid--but not gratuitously violent--circumstances, surprising secrets revealed (but no silly plot twists with new evil villains), and a general sense that solving the case and finding out 'what really happened' may not actually make things any b...more
There are many wonderful things about older crime novels. Without hi-tech gadgets, in-depth forensic analysis and overly sadistic killers, the writer nearly always has to rely on incredible language and story telling skills to keep the reader engaged and excited. P D James wrote the first Adam Dalgliesh novel in 1962 and her novels continuously make best selling lists over 40 years later. I really, really enjoyed An Unsuitable Job for a Woman in so many ways - sadly it is the first of only two b...more
Sep 17, 2009
Kate
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Mystery lovers, especially Dorothy Sayers fans.
Recommended to Kate by:
Used-bookstore find.
Great story-- it stands on its own as a novel, not just as a mystery. The mystery itself has a few flaws-- clues requiring unusual suspension of disbelief, amazing coincidences, and a couple of suspiciously convenient deaths. However, I love the moral ambiguity that runs the end of the story, the strange "intimacy" Cordelia develops with the (deceased) subject of her investigation, and how her background affects the way she handles the case. I especially liked the post-denouement crisis at the e...more
A very clever title for a book about an intelligent, self directed young woman named Cordelia with a talent for detective work who must take on her first solo case after the death of her boss. The case takes her to Cambridge, where a promising student has apparently killed himself. There are several discrepancies in this account that Cordelia must unpick. The truth looks considerably more sinister. The plot unfolds logically and systematically with skillful surprises and misleads. I am not the t...more
El primer libro que leo de la autora y dudo mucho que me acerque otra vez por voluntad propia a ella. Se me ha hecho muy pesado, a ratos me planteaba dejarlo, encima esos capítulos tan largos no me ayudaban mucho a seguir con él.
Con una prota de lo más desgraciada que acaba de "tener su primera oportunidad" tras la muerte de su compañero de toda la vida (porque no quería acabar muriendo de cáncer, sino por su mano), Cordelia, pobre, con la herencia que Bernie (su socio) le ha dejado al morirse,...more
Con una prota de lo más desgraciada que acaba de "tener su primera oportunidad" tras la muerte de su compañero de toda la vida (porque no quería acabar muriendo de cáncer, sino por su mano), Cordelia, pobre, con la herencia que Bernie (su socio) le ha dejado al morirse,...more
I understand that P.D. James is heralded as a great author and I understand that. Her reputation is what drew me to this book. However, I was underwhelmed. Maybe it is because I just got finished reading all the Dennis Lehane books about his two detectives Angie and Patrick,and his style of writing and character development drew me in completely and in my opinion was truly wonderful. It could be that James simply employs an older style of writing that may have held intensity and suspense in the...more
Cordelia Grey is a young woman who finds herself the sole proprietor of a London detective agency after her business partner kills himself. Her first solo case is the investigation of the circumstances surrounding the suicide of a young Cambridge student, at the request of his father. I was a bit enthralled by how deliciously nineteen seventies everything was ... just about every single plot point in the book came back around to SEX, and most of the characters needed to point out how uninhibited...more
Cordelia Gray is a 22-year-old private detective in 1970s England. I like the character, but there were things that she did that I found difficult to believe, like sleeping in a decedent’s cottage – while that person’s belongings are still there. Aside from the fact that it’s creepy, I would think that a detective wouldn’t want to disturb the scene. There are a few other things, too, but I don’t want to spoil the novel for anyone. Cordelia seemed to get too emotionally involved with other people...more
An Unsuitable Job for a Woman is the earlier of two P D James murder mysteries involving, Cordelia Gray, sole proprietor of Pryde’s Detective Agency. If that sounds like the start of a Girl Detective story, more Enid Blyton than P D James, that is exactly the problem.
The underlying story is interesting, unravelling the suicide of a recent university dropout by interviewing the people in his life. The difficulty is that the story is told through the eyes of a woman in her early twenties who wave...more
The underlying story is interesting, unravelling the suicide of a recent university dropout by interviewing the people in his life. The difficulty is that the story is told through the eyes of a woman in her early twenties who wave...more
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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. In 2000 she...more
More about P.D. James...
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. In 2000 she...more
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“I can never see why people should be jealous. After all, youth isn't a matter of privilege, we all get the same share of it. Some people may be born at an easier time or be richer or more privileged than others, but that hasn't anything to do with being young. And being your is terrible sometimes. Don't you remember how terrible it could be?”
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Jan 02, 2009 09:15am