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310th out of 3,396 books
—
7,817 voters
A Mind To Murder (Adam Dalgliesh #2)
by
P.D. James
When the administrative head of the Steen Psychiatric Clinic is found dead with a chisel in her heart, Superintendent Adam Dalgliesh of Scotland Yard is called in to investigate. Dalgliesh must analyze the deep-seated anxieties and thwarted desires of patients and staff alike to determine which of their unresolved conflicts resulted in murder. With "discernment, depth, and...more
Paperback, 256 pages
Published
May 22nd 2001
by Touchstone
(first published 1963)
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here's a little story for you...
so a famous San Francisco lobbyist - a lively raconteur, a darling of the media, and an infamously debauched homosexual - had a birthday celebration. because this was a man who helped build the careers of many politicians, his birthday party was a rather public affair and was heavily attended by the local glitterati, including our illustrious mayor. this turned out to be an exceedingly unconventional event: activities included the carving of satanic symbols on va...more
so a famous San Francisco lobbyist - a lively raconteur, a darling of the media, and an infamously debauched homosexual - had a birthday celebration. because this was a man who helped build the careers of many politicians, his birthday party was a rather public affair and was heavily attended by the local glitterati, including our illustrious mayor. this turned out to be an exceedingly unconventional event: activities included the carving of satanic symbols on va...more
Well, five of the seven cardinal sins are present; only wrath and gluttony are missing. Greed, sloth, pride, lust, and envy are the key vices in the story, in case your memory needs a nudge.
This dark detective story deals with heavy topics including adultery, divorce, and other marital stresses, religious fervor, as well as the then [1960s] new field of psychotherapy.
This story is full of biting social commentary: P.D. James spares no one.
p. 102:
This dark detective story deals with heavy topics including adultery, divorce, and other marital stresses, religious fervor, as well as the then [1960s] new field of psychotherapy.
This story is full of biting social commentary: P.D. James spares no one.
p. 102:
'... Dr Steiner and I feel that if the Worriker...more
3 likes · like · see review
Book Two in the Adam Dalgleish series. I liked this one more than the first. It's less formulaic, although still a bit of a drawing room mystery. Set in a posh psychiatric clinic, the victim is the Administrative Officer and the suspects all employees, ranging from the Porter to the secretaries to the doctors, who were in the building at the time of the murder. I found it amusing that my copy, a pulp paperback from 1963, compared James to Agatha Christie on the cover. Above the title, written in...more
I read this book many, many years ago and was looking for a quick read recently when it fell out of my wardrobe and landed at my feet. Decision made. This was first published in 1963 and it still holds up really well as a great murder mystery. It gives me a new found admiration for P.D. James, that she can still hold her own in this genre, after so many decades of writing and against so many new authors. She is still one of the best - no contest. This is an Adam Dalgleish police procedural myste...more
Jul 04, 2010
Laura
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Anyone who likes good police procedurals and doesn't mind an unappealing detective
If I could do half stars (something I frequently wish I could do), I'd give this two and a half. It was better than "okay" but only just so. Dalgliesh is just so unappealing. He writes poetry, but there is nothing at all that I find poetic about him. And there are tons of poets I don't like, but at least they have personality. He lacks even that.
The murder itself was compelling enough to keep me reading and it was a solid procedural with a nice red herring and tiny twist--totally believable tin...more
The murder itself was compelling enough to keep me reading and it was a solid procedural with a nice red herring and tiny twist--totally believable tin...more
The murder of administrative officer, Enid Bolam, at the Steen Psychiatric Clinic, has staff on edge and, once again, Superintendent Adam Dalgliesh has to sort truth from lies and rumors. It’s no easy task as there are plenty of suspects to go around, and good reasons to want Enid dead.
This is the fourth P.D. James mystery I’ve read this year. Things started off rocky with Cover Her Face, however, I really enjoyed The Black Tower and Shroud for a Nightingale. I was disappointed, though, with thi...more
This is the fourth P.D. James mystery I’ve read this year. Things started off rocky with Cover Her Face, however, I really enjoyed The Black Tower and Shroud for a Nightingale. I was disappointed, though, with thi...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
Oct 29, 2009
Lobstergirl
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Timothy Leary
Recommended to Lobstergirl by:
Diogenes
Shelves:
mystery-thriller,
fiction
After skipping around among P.D. James' cozy police procedurals, reading four of the more recent books, I'm starting at the beginning and working my way through. This one isn't markedly better than Cover Her Face, her first. All the suspects, colleagues at a psychiatric clinic, naturally either hated or disliked the murderee, or stood to benefit from her death. James writes cynically and concescendingly - she creates an unlikeable group (except for Dalgliesh and Martin, obviously); class differe...more
I started reading this book, the second in P.D. James' Adam Dalgliesh series, before the first book, Cover Her Face, and since I preferred this story, it resulted in a higher rating. Both stories were a typical English mystery, but I found the characters in this book more interesting as they were all flawed (albeit some more than others), even Detective Dalgliesh. The murder took place in a pyschiatric clinic where the rule-following Administrative Officer, Miss Bolam, is found with an art chise...more
I read this book with recommendation from my mother. We generally have a similar taste in books, so I expected to enjoy this book. While not poorly written the cast of characters is so large it's hard to keep up with what's happening when, especially when they're introduced so quickly. The book is very fast paced and doesn't provide a lot of background information until the last half. The lack of exposition regarding the main characters keeps them two dimensional. This may be because it's the s...more
PD James is an excellent writer, this Adam Dalgleish mystery was written in 1963, and the book is still interesting and relevant. The scene is a psychiatric clinic in London, and the office administrator has been murdered. The clinic director has the peace of mind to lock all the doors and wait for the police to arrive, so presumedly, the killer is still in the building. As Adam interviews each of the clinic's workers, secrets emerge. Is the crime related to Enid Bolam's money? The book and solv...more
9. A Mind To Murder by P.D. James. The Steen Psychiatric Clinic caters to the wealthy Londoner whose therapy is more about having the money to be in therapy. The clinic does have some actually ill patients, and some of the staff treats their patients with LSD, but they have no real problems until the day an administrator is found with a chisel in her chest. Investigator Adam Dalgliesh gets to know all the staff members who had a grudge against the unlikable woman.
This is the second Dalgliesh mys...more
I really enjoy PD James' writing style. She shows you the inner thoughts of all her characters from their perspectives, even the person who will ultimately end up up being guilty of the crime (though obviously not in a way that gives away their guilt). This is the second book in the Adam Dalgliesh series (out of 14). Like the first book it kept me guessing all the way until the end, which to me is the mark of a successful mystery. It has the perfect length for a mystery novel, not too long to be...more
After enjoying P.D. James' later novels in the Adam Dalgliesh series, I decided to work my way through the entire series. In this novel, the murder happens immediately, and then Dalgliesh shows up and starts interviewing the suspects. That's fine but the story didn't capture my interest at that point since I wasn't invested yet in the characters. I only really started to enjoy the novel after the first of second CD when the interviewing section was over.
I've come to enjoy P.D. James's detective...more
I've come to enjoy P.D. James's detective...more
This book in the series was definitely not as good as Shroud for a Nightingale, which apparently comes after this one, maybe I should have began the series at the beginning. I thought the end of this one didn't make all that much sense, and the motives to me didn't come together after the reveal. But I still enjoyed it and thought it was well done. I have added a mystery shelf which is sorta cool. I think I will try to read the rest of the series. However, reading these books makes me never want...more
I actually listened to the CD version, but it wasn't listed. As always, it took awhile to get into the book since the first part of any of Ms. James' books sets the stage for what happens. It takes a little while to remember the characters just like when one meets a group of people. But like all of Ms. James' mysteries that I've read, the story gathers momentum like a stone rolling downhill and becomes thoroughly involving. Also like all of her mysteries, there is irony and the effect of the sto...more
This second in the series was easier to follow because the characters were fewer and somewhat better developed. It takes place in a private psychiatric treatment center back in the days of electric shock therapy with various individuals surrounding the murder of the disliked clerical supervisor. The story slowly advances while detective Dagliesh interviews everyone in his detailed fashion and then goes into the private lives and thoughts of the suspects
The author's technique is quite different f...more
The author's technique is quite different f...more
Feb 27, 2012
Jennifer Stone
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
mystery,
british-author
Apparently I am in one of those temporary reading zones where I can't survive anything that isn't a page turner. PD James might by modern standards, say, compared to The Hunger Games, be a bit plodding, but I am always engrossed enough with the enigmatic Dagliesh and his pushing through of the veiled lies, red herrings, his mapping of the timeline, etc., that I can still finish them in a day or two. And I always find I've thought about the human condition at the end, which at least is something....more
So... this book left me feeling angry. Very angry. The type of angry you feel when you were promised something good and then it turns out the good stuff was just a red herring and that the real solution is just sea cucumber. Yes I am talking about the plot of this book.
Basically Miss Bolam is murdered and no one knows why anyone would murder her. She wasn't popular but she wasn't murder worthy which was all fun for me because I love a good murder story where they have to establish motive too. Le...more
Basically Miss Bolam is murdered and no one knows why anyone would murder her. She wasn't popular but she wasn't murder worthy which was all fun for me because I love a good murder story where they have to establish motive too. Le...more
Nov 21, 2012
Abbey
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Shelves:
vintage,
favorites,
myst-police,
series,
myst-cosies,
myst-fems-project,
myst-set-andor-auth-uk
1963, #2 Inspector Adam Dalgleish, a psychiatric clinic, London; classic police procedural, still entertaining, narration pretty good. This reread via Overdrive - 1985, Chivers Audio Books, read by Roy Marsden
The Office Manager of a posh clinic gets herself brutally murdered in its basement and suspects abound as Dalgleish works to peel away the layers of semi-truth and falsehoods that surround the setting, the victim, and her co-workers.
You can see the debt James owes Marsh here, as Adam uncha...more
The Office Manager of a posh clinic gets herself brutally murdered in its basement and suspects abound as Dalgleish works to peel away the layers of semi-truth and falsehoods that surround the setting, the victim, and her co-workers.
You can see the debt James owes Marsh here, as Adam uncha...more
The second PD James Dalgliesh mystery, and the second I've read now. The first was overly plot-driven with very little development of Dalgliesh, but I you can feel in this second of his books that the character is coming to life. You learn a little more about his late wife, you learn he is a published poet, etc...
I enjoyed this book very much. Solid plotting, an interesting group of suspects, a nice twist at the end, all the rules of fair play adhered to, plenty of clues. I'm just terrible at f...more
I enjoyed this book very much. Solid plotting, an interesting group of suspects, a nice twist at the end, all the rules of fair play adhered to, plenty of clues. I'm just terrible at f...more
not nearly as enjoyable (imho) as "Cover Her Face," but still an okay read. I've noticed in these two that while Dalgliesh gets onto a certain clue that sends him right to the murderer, there really isn't much here about investigative technique or something that he does especially to solve the crime. Oh well.
brief summary, no spoilers
The scene of the crime is the Steen psychiatric clinic, and the victim is the administrative head of the place, a miss Bolam. She is killed in the records room with...more
brief summary, no spoilers
The scene of the crime is the Steen psychiatric clinic, and the victim is the administrative head of the place, a miss Bolam. She is killed in the records room with...more
#2 Inspector Adam Dalgliesh British police procedural. It struck me while reading this book that, despite its having been published 45 years ago, the book didn’t seem “dated” as some older books can. The focus was the mystery, the plot, the who-dunnit-and-why, and not really on the characters. And while there was much detail about the psychiatric clinic where this took place, it seemed done in a….I don’t know, timeless manner, so that the lack of computers, a theft of £15 being a huge deal, the...more
When the administrative head of the Steen Psychiatric Clinic is found dead with a chisel in her heart, Superintendent Adam Dalgliesh of Scotland Yard is called in to investigate. Dalgliesh must analyze the deep-seated anxieties and thwarted desires of patients and staff alike to determine which of their unresolved conflicts resulted in murder.With "discernment, depth, and craftsmanship," wrote the Chicago Daily News, A Mind to Murder "is a superbly satisfying mystery."
My rating was skewed by the fact that I don't really enjoy these types of mysteries; they're too civilized for my taste. Even so, I'd recommend this one to P.D. James fans. The setting, a psychiatric clinic, is interesting and there's a lot of information that puts the book in the 1960s. (Like how the clinic is able to sort its cases by characteristic without the use of a computer!) The solution to the murder isn't terribly hard to figure out but there is a red herring. All in all, not a waste o...more
I picked up this book at the suggestion of several prominent writers hoping to experience the best mystery writer ever. Not exactly what I expected and certainly not Agatha Christie. I will admit to loving her wonderfully english prose; free flowing and high-brow. She does develop her characters nicely giving the reader delicious insights into character emotion, motive and purpose. All necessary to a good mystery. The story waned a bit in the middle (too much exposition), but like an good myster...more
Adam Dalgliesh-sarjan kakkososa käännetään vasta nyt - jostain käsittämättömästä syystä. Dekkarigenre on muuttunut hurjasti Jamesin ensimmäisistä romaaneista, jotka kantavat vielä kultakauden järjestäytynyttä yhteiskuntaa, kohtuullista verenvähyyttä ja juonellista motivointia mukanaan. Sinänsä Murhaajan mieli ei ole nerokas, mutta hyvin nokkela ja palapelimäinen ohuehko nautinto. Adamia lihotetaan varovaisesti ristiriitaisuuksien suuntaan, mutta kauniit kädet sekä runoilijan luonto heikottavat p...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
Surprise! Okay, I was surprised at the ending.
From what I can find, this is the 2nd Dalgliesh novel. I'm pleased (and semi-amazed) that the characters and writing are still interesting and satisfying from this one (originally written in 1963) to the latest, The Private Patient, written in 2008.
From what I can find, this is the 2nd Dalgliesh novel. I'm pleased (and semi-amazed) that the characters and writing are still interesting and satisfying from this one (originally written in 1963) to the latest, The Private Patient, written in 2008.
Mar 27, 2010
Mary Lou
added it
Recommended to Mary Lou by:
the last of those from my neighbor Marg, now gone back to Canada
British style murder mystery with the body found first, then endless descriptions of furniture, clothing & the order in which people were seated around a table. There was a half page’s worth of a flight of fancy mid book. The mystery was resolved well before the end but the detective was off on a tangent chasing another suspect. Anyway he needed proof that would hold up in court. Better than TV repeats.
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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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