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 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.