On November the twenty-first, the day of her forty-seventh birthday, and three weeks and two days before she was murdered, Rhoda Gradwyn went to Harley Street to keep a first appointment with her plastic surgeon, and there in a consulting room designed, so it appeared, to inspire confidence and allay apprehension, made the decision which would lead inexorably to her death.
-The Private Patient
That's one helluva opening line, don't you think? If you're a mystery fan, I can't imagine how you could read a line like that and not want to delve in.
Of course, it's the first line of a P.D. James novel, so one is inclined to assume a certain level of whodunit excellence from the start. The Private Patient is James's 14th novel featuring Adam Dalgliesh - her first was published in 1962, this most recent one in 2008, when James was 88. That is hardcore.
Dalgliesh goes into this case knowing it may be his last before the dissolution of his unit. It's a doozy. Rhoda Gradwyn checks into a private country clinic to have surgery on a facial scar, the remnant of a traumatic childhood injury. The surgery goes well, but she's found dead the next morning - strangled, and it looks like an inside job. Gradwyn was an investigative journalist, and her stories had made a fair amount of people unhappy over the years. Dalgliesh and his team must uncover who Gradwyn could have angered so strongly as to provoke her murder. They discover that the workers at the clinic have a number of secrets, naturally. And then another body shows up...
I've lost track of how many Dalgliesh novels I've read over the years. I do know I've read them out of sequence, which doesn't affect one's understanding of the mystery in the slightest, but probably left me less invested in the personal lives of Dalgliesh and his team than readers more committed to this series would be. I do find Dalgliesh to be an interesting detective, mostly because he seems to be so together. Kurt Wallander has his sleepless nights, Harry Hole his lost weekends. Dalgliesh, on the other hand, is engaged to a professor and is a published poet. It makes Dalgliesh distinctive in the world of literary detectives, and I wonder if it actually makes him slightly less relatable. I can understand why a detective in a murder inquiry, after spending a day soaking up the worst humanity has to offer, might need to come home to a beer or six. To be able to channel that into poetry is, I would imagine, an unusual gift among detectives, and it's not particularly easy to relate to. I think James is an excellent writer, and Dalgliesh certainly an admirable detective, but I definitely read James's stories more for the plot than for my investment in the character.
Up next: Another mystery, In the Woods by Tana French. Hopefully I like it, because I already have the sequel sitting on my shelf.
Do you think Dalgleish is a reflection of James, in that she is also very together?
ReplyDeleteI found your post while searching for that remarkable first line. I'll be back to read more. No posts are listed for 2014. I hope you haven't stopped writing here.