Shroud for a Nightingale / P.D. James

Shroud For A Nightingale by P.D. James
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

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James writes an excellent closed community mystery, just as Christie did. I do find, though, that James takes her time acquainting the reader with the victim, the other members of the medical school, and the environment. She needs more words to establish her footing, where Dame Agatha was masterful at economical description.

This novel turns to a medical setting, a school of nursing, an environment that James probably knew a thing or two about, having worked for a hospital board for almost 20 years. This school with the fortuitous name (named after the donor family, not Florence Nightingale) provides a suitable cast of characters, all living in the old manor house, in each other's hip pockets. I'm assuming that James wrote these books as contemporary rather than as historical novels. It's fascinating to see how British society has moved along from that depicted in Christie's early works. Young women are quite independent, use contraceptive pills, have sexual relationships, and don't seem to be judged too harshly for it.

Adam Dalgleish is acknowledged to be tall and elegant, a poet as well as a detective. I heard James interviewed where she admitted to writing a character in whom she would be personally interested. This is only the fourth book, so I'm unsure how he will continue to develop, but he certainly doesn't seem to have a Watson or Hastings type of sidekick yet. Masterson, who works with him on this case, seems rather truculent about it and demonstrates a proclivity to take advantage of his position of authority. Not a person with whom I would like to spend time, but he certainly makes an interesting foil for Dalgleish.

The nature of this mystery, being a limited community, meant that I knew that one of the members had to be the murderer, but I was unenlightened until the big reveal (a la Poirot, I thought). James had salted the story with enough potential motives that I couldn't get a focus on the killer. I do love being unsure, guessing too early is so disappointing.

I'll look forward to the next installment.




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