[WPF] The Mistletoe Murder and Other Stories by P.D. James - 5 stars

[Theresa]

This is a delightful collection of P.D. James' short stories, mostly set around the Christmas season. James clearly took pride in crafting her short stories, writing tight little gems that I found fully satisfying and complete, short as they are. A preface by the author on the art of the short story especially in crime fiction, illuminates her admiration for the short story, especially as demonstrated by Golden Age of Detective Fiction authors like Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie.

In fact, each story bears certain similarities to some of those precursors, even deliberately mentioned as imitating (with tongue firmly in cheek). There's a lot of humor and fun in the stories, yet James never once diminishes just how evil and wicked the deeds and the doers are. These were the perfect reading for me right now.

The stories:

The Mistletoe Murder - the narrator tells the story of a past murder at a country estate at Christmastime during WWII, deftly inserting clues that I essentially disdained before the great reveal at the very very end.

A Very Commonplace Murder - An elderly man visits a room to let and reminisces about a tragedy that happened many many years before. This one I figured out what really happened when -- yet I was still zinged when James threw one final twist in at the very end. It was perfect! Note: Christmas is missing from this one, or so it seemed. I didn't mind.

The Boxdale Inheritance - features Chief Superintendant Adam Dagliesh who is asked by his Godfather to review a past death and possible murder in the family, one that occurred during a family Christmas gathering at around 1900. I did not figure this one out, and found it particularly complex for such a short tight story.

The Twelve Clues of Christmas - a young Dagliesh, newly promoted to sergeant, is on his way to visit an aunt for Christmas when he is stopped by someone on the side of the road near a country estate and becomes embroiled into assisting the investigation of a suicide. This one is more a farce than a serious detective story. A fun amusing whimsy rather than a complex bit of crime fiction.

I also read a standalone short story I had which I'll share and review here: The Part-Time Job - the narrator, who is not particularly sympathetic, takes you down a posthumously published confession by an egotistical killer. James merrily led me down a primrose path only to smack me in the face at the very end with something I did not expect and in fact completely overlooked, never thinking to question. Brava!

I know I have another collectino of PD James short stories here somewhere. I absolutely will need to dig them out to read!