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120th out of 3,394 books
—
7,825 voters
Cover Her Face (Adam Dalgliesh #1)
by
P.D. James
Headstrong and beautiful, the young housemaid Sally Jupp is put rudely in her place, strangled in her bed behind a bolted door. Coolly brilliant policeman Adam Dalgliesh of Scotland Yard must find her killer among a houseful of suspects, most of whom had very good reason to wish her ill.
Cover Her Face is P. D. James's electric debut novel, an ingeniously plotted mystery
...morePaperback, 250 pages
Published
May 1st 2001
by Touchstone
(first published 1962)
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"Exactly three months before the killing at Martingale, Mrs. Maxie gave a dinner party. Years later when the trial was a half forgotten scandal and the headlines were yellowing on the newspaper lining of the cupboard drawers, Eleanor Maxie looked back on that spring evening as the opening scene of the tragedy."
These are the first lines written in 1962 by the monarch of mystery, 92 year old P.D. James. They predict introspection from her characters, depth of story lines, literary language, and mu...more
These are the first lines written in 1962 by the monarch of mystery, 92 year old P.D. James. They predict introspection from her characters, depth of story lines, literary language, and mu...more
This was James’ first crime novel, debuting DCI Adam Dalgliesh who gets far less character padding or attention than the victim, suspect pool, or even his accompanying sergeant. I enjoy James’ character building enormously, it’s really her forte, and especially the way she often leaves Dalgliesh to the role of observer, concentrating on the crime rather than the draw of a serialised detective. In Cover her Face, none of the characters are overly likeable, but they are all very strongly presented...more
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Oct 15, 2012
Abbey
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Shelves:
vintage,
favorites,
myst-police,
series,
myst-cosies,
myst-fems-project,
myst-set-andor-auth-uk
BOTTOM LINE: An auspicious debut novel from a writer who has become one of the very best of the "traditional" style popular mystery authors in the world. This 1962 "big house" story has all the trappings, beautifully twisted, and fairly smoothly presented. Recommended.
Death of a maid, who is rather more than just a servant, in a lovely old manor house that’s seen better days, with an odd family who ought not to have let her get under their skin. Smooth and involved plotting, lots of secrets, in...more
Death of a maid, who is rather more than just a servant, in a lovely old manor house that’s seen better days, with an odd family who ought not to have let her get under their skin. Smooth and involved plotting, lots of secrets, in...more
I like keeping a crime novel handy sometimes when I’m reading a nonfiction book. I tend to find fiction a bit more relaxing, and would prefer not to read a book like The Omnivore’s Dilemma (the other book I’m reading) before bed. This was James’ debut novel, and it reads quite assuredly for being such. A well constructed, if unsurprising, mystery. I don’t mean that the identity of the killer was unsurprising; I mean that, in general, the book stuck well within the confines of its genre. One thin...more
Apr 02, 2012
Hayes
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
read-in-2012,
read-prior-to-2009
This is a re-read for me, and it was a real pleasure. I confirm the original 4 stars, and give a little extra credit because this was Ms James' very first book.
They don't make first books like this any more.
Here is one of my favorite quotes from the very beginning of the book. It is a flashback which sets the stage for telling the story, and it is also an example of James' ability to perfectly describe complicated relationships using very few words:
They don't make first books like this any more.
Here is one of my favorite quotes from the very beginning of the book. It is a flashback which sets the stage for telling the story, and it is also an example of James' ability to perfectly describe complicated relationships using very few words:
At the time, of course, the party was both or...more
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This is a classic English mystery along the lines of an Agatha Christie story. There is the upper class family who lives in their family manor and is attended to by servants. One of these, Sally Jupp, was a meddlesome single mother and her death by strangulation is what brings Inspector Adam Dalgliesh into the the case. In typical fashion he interviews all the suspects, looks beyond the obvious solutions, and in a confrontation gets the killer to admit to the crime. Few other writers today captu...more
James, P. D. COVER HER FACE. (1962). *****. This was James’ first Detective Chief Superintendent Adam Dagliesh mystery, and marked her entrance into the field superlatively. I’ve always wanted to read these mysteries in order, but, unfortunately, read them as I found them. Some little pieces of data are given in each installment about Dagliesh that help you to know the character better, but does not affect the reading of the book at hand. In this case, there is a killing at Martingale, the ances...more
Sally Jupp was a sly and sensuous young woman who used her body and her brains to make her way up the social ladder. Now she lies across her bed with dark bruises from a strangler’s fingers forever marring her lily-white throat.
Someone has decided that the wages of sin should be death...And it is up to Chief Inspector Adam Dalgliesh to find out who that someone is.
Review“The finest English crime novelist of her generation.” -- The Globe and Mail
“The reigning mistress of murder...Her vivid, c
I love a good mystery and have always meant to read P.D. James, whom I've heard described as the "cerebral" mystery writer. I'm also a bit obsessive about series, preferring to read them from the first book to the last rather than dipping in and out. So, when I found the first three books in the Adam Dalgleish series, I decided to dive in.
The first book in the series, Cover Her Face, is mildly disappointing. (After I finished it, I read online that this was James' least favorite book.) It's a t...more
The first book in the series, Cover Her Face, is mildly disappointing. (After I finished it, I read online that this was James' least favorite book.) It's a t...more
P.D. James is one of the foremost crime writers of the past 40 years or so. Along with Ruth Rendell, she has been responsible for moving the writing of the Golden Age English detective story forwards from the somewhat restricted and rarefied worlds populated by the characters created by Dame Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers and others. Although crime fiction remains stubbornly ghettoised as genre fiction by bookshops, critics and many readers (and it would seem that that is unlikely to change...more
"Death Comes to Pemberley" so says P.D. James, but before risking any sensibilities, I thought it wise to dip a tentative toe into her first novel, in order to judge whether she may do Austin justice. Many will agree that "Pride&Prejudice" is such Perfection that I'm loathe to destroy it with inferior associations, which is why I have yet to embrace the blood-thirsty "Pride&Prejudice&Zombies" (despite my hearty appetite for the Walking Dead), and why it took me 7 years to watch the K...more
This book started off a little slow for me. After reading James Patterson, who gets right into the action, this story starts off with a dinner party, briefly mentioning the murder victim. It takes a while to get through the boring introductory chapters and into the real murder and mystery solving.
Once the mystery-solving began it reminded me a lot of the movie Murder on the Orient Express. It was a "who-dunnit" kind of book and it was a great read. Adam Dalgliesh, no matter how hard his last nam...more
Once the mystery-solving began it reminded me a lot of the movie Murder on the Orient Express. It was a "who-dunnit" kind of book and it was a great read. Adam Dalgliesh, no matter how hard his last nam...more
A very enjoyable murder mystery.
I've been curious about P.D James for a while now, so I bypassed my bulging 'Golden-Era' crime novel shelves and tried this second generation lady mystery author. On the whole, I wasn't disappointed.
James writes well, engages the reader with the characters, and has some very strong opinions on the state of society as she saw it, which she was definitely not afraid to air. Some of the topics to get a tongue lashing from her included the morality of youth, unmarried...more
I've been curious about P.D James for a while now, so I bypassed my bulging 'Golden-Era' crime novel shelves and tried this second generation lady mystery author. On the whole, I wasn't disappointed.
James writes well, engages the reader with the characters, and has some very strong opinions on the state of society as she saw it, which she was definitely not afraid to air. Some of the topics to get a tongue lashing from her included the morality of youth, unmarried...more
This is another of P.D. James' very early Dalgliesh novels. Much like UNNATURAL CAUSES, it displays a certain dated view of society no longer seen in the 21st century. Whereas it is displayed in UNNATURAL CAUSES in the author's attitude toward disability, in COVER HER FACE it emerges in the portrayal of an unwed mother as a sly, deceitful, and wicked person who happens to be physically beautiful, but is targeted by virtually everyone around her a sinner and a wretch from whom gratitude is expect...more
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Saucy and pert, Sally Jupp enjoyed making others uncomfortable, including her own employers at Martingale, a large country estate owned by the Maxies. Sally took spiteful pleasure in mimicking the clothing and mannerisms of Deborah, the family's daughter; in annoying the cook, Martha; in setting village tongues wagging with her state as an unwed mother and her apparent dalliance with a local youth and in upsetting the entire social hierarchy of the Maxie family when she announced that its son an...more
When housekeeper, Sally Jupp, is murdered at the Maxie family’s manor house, the family is naturally under suspicion. But as Detective Chief-Inspector Adam Dalgleish investigates, it appears that others might have had a motive for killing the secretive and manipulative Sally.
It’s been ages since I read a P.D. James novel, so I wanted to find out if I liked her books as much as I did twenty years ago. I picked up Cover Her Face from my long-neglected TBR pile, and by the end of the short book, I...more
I'm hovering between three stars and four and pick three simply because I know the later books in the series get better, and I need a way to go up! Adam Dalgliesh is my favorite P.D. James character, and though I have read many of the novels and seen most of the BBC productions featuring him, I had never actually read this 1962 book, the first in the series. It was very interesting to see the character introduced, and gratifying to find this an engrossing read, full of the sensitivity to motivat...more
After my brain injury, PD James became a marker for me in my reading progress. Pre-injury I read every one of her books and enjoyed them tremendously for their good writing and good stories. After my injury though, with my reading ability fried, I couldn't read any of her books. Too many characters to follow, plots that meandered beyond my ability to follow, writing at a grade level higher than what I'd sunk down to... It was rather disappointing to see her new books come out over the years and...more
"God, he was glad to get away from a place where the living were perpetually sacrificed to keep the half-dead alive," (207). Not exactly the sentiments I'd like my DOCTOR to have!! Pretty cold-hearted characters in this novel, either one of them could have killed her....
I missed the killer, in this one, sticking to my guns, since that usually had been my gift of picking the killer, but being thrown off by the Red Herrings or simply forgetting the air-tight evidence or clues that authors give.
An...more
Somehow, even though this book came out decades ago, I never read it until now. I've read other books by James, and enjoyed them. So when I saw this on the library shelves, I knew I'd better grab it. Here Dagliesh is called in to the murder of a young woman, Sally Jupp. Jupp was working as a maid in the house where she was killed. She had been recommended by the local home for unmarried mothers. She had a small child and was well-educated, but her attitude was now always one of submission. She l...more
A classic English mystery in the style of Agatha Christie (although Dame Agatha will always be the reigning queen of this type of genre in my humble opinion) with the murder of a manipulative maid taking place at an upper class English family estate. Chief Inspector Dalgliesh quickly narrows the cast of suspects down to the occupants of the Maxi household which I liked, since this part could have dragged on for a long time, as there was village festival hosted at the Maxi home the day before the...more
Finally got to this one. Classic P. D. James, old-fashioned but of highest quality. Includes some acidic remarks about architecture: "He fumes against what he calls the desecration of Chadfleet New Town from a Victorian pseudo-castle so ugly that I'm surprised someone hasn't formed a trust to preserve it. Sir Reynold is a philistine, no doubt, but not, I think, a murderer."
Not much character development in these early books, which means they are much shorter than her more recent ones.
This book t...more
Not much character development in these early books, which means they are much shorter than her more recent ones.
This book t...more
I don’t generally read mysteries but came across P.D. James’ 1962 murder mystery, Cover Her Face, on one of the shelves in our library late one night. Martini in hand, I curled up figuring I’d just explore a few pages before bed. I read, “Exactly three months before the killing at Martingale, Mrs Maxie gave a dinner-party. Years later, when the trial was a half-forgotten scandal and the headlines were yellowing on the newspaper lining of cupboard drawers, Eleanor Maxie looked back on that spring...more
Young unwed mother Sally Jupp has just started as the housemaid to the Maxie family. It doesn't take long before she announces that son Stephen has proposed to her. When she is found strangled in her bed the next morning, the Maxies are horrified, but also very relieved. Adam Dalgliesh of Scotland Yard is sent to sort through the glut of suspects who would want to see the girl dead.
I'm going to get through at least a couple of the Dalgliesh mysteries this month, and Cover Her Face was the first,...more
I'm going to get through at least a couple of the Dalgliesh mysteries this month, and Cover Her Face was the first,...more
James introduced her detective, Inspector Dalgleish, in this novel, but interestingly he is not the central character. Indeed, there does not seem to be a central character, except,perhaps,for Sally the murder victim. In many respects, this is a classic British mystery, with a murder in an upper-class family house, a few suspects, most of whom are introduced via a dinner part in the first few pages. All of them have secrets and deceits that prolong the solving of the crime. I wasn't sure who com...more
I read several PD James novels about 5 or 6 years ago, and I remembered enjoying them a lot, so I was looking forward to this book. However, I was disappointed with this one. While its actually pretty apparent, even in this, her first book, that PD James knows what she's doing in constructing a murder mystery, the rest of the book fell flat. I didn't like any of the characters, it wasn't really engaging at all, and quite frankly, I found it pretty tough to get through. But the way that she devis...more
This book was a bit of a struggle for me to get into. (1) The author introduces every suspect and nearly every character in the first three pages of the book. (2) Most of the characters are from the same family and share a last name. This, however, does not prevent the author from referring to them as Mr. Maxie, Dr. Maxie, etc. (3) It's a British novel. The vocabulary and sentence structure were surprisingly foreign to me. Because of the way it was written I automatically placed it in the ninete...more
My first foray into any of PD James. It took me a little bit to adjust myself to her writing style but once I did I really enjoyed it. I had seen Martin Shaw portray Inspector Dalgliesh a few years back in another PD James adaption, Death in Holy Orders, and liked that so I figured I'd give this a chance. It paid off nicely and I plan on reading all the subsquent novels. The characters in this book are varied and interesting, each with a motive to possibly commit the crime. I have not read many...more
Apr 09, 2010
Jan C
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
P. D. James fans
Recommended to Jan C by:
Kirsti
This is early P.D. James. We learned a few things about Dalgliesh - he lost his wife and child and he sails. I am not sure I ever knew those things about Dalgliesh before. And I have read several of the Dalgleish books.
It held my interest. We learned that Dalgleish’s sergeant respected Dalgliesh and his ability to be a closer.
I don’t think I liked any of the people in this house where the maid was murdered. Dr. Maxie came across as pretty selfish. He acted pretty much like the lord of the mano...more
It held my interest. We learned that Dalgleish’s sergeant respected Dalgliesh and his ability to be a closer.
I don’t think I liked any of the people in this house where the maid was murdered. Dr. Maxie came across as pretty selfish. He acted pretty much like the lord of the mano...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
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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
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