The Black Tower by P.D. JamesMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Not my favourite James book. Her main character, Adam Dalgliesh, has been seriously ill and must convalesce and decide what to do with his life. Turns out his illness wasn't the fatal cancer his doctors originally feared, so he must find a way to re-engage with life (a circumstance echoed in the situation he finds himself later in the novel).
So we have an uncertain and disillusioned Dalgliesh, called to give advice to a clergyman that he has known when he was a boy. He's unsure what the man wanted to discuss, but by the time he arrives at the odd facility/community where the priest lives, the man is dead. Dalgliesh doesn't want to be an investigator any more, but he also can't turn off his brain. Perhaps it's this lack of true engagement in the main character, but I had a hard time caring whether it was a murder or not.
Of course, the mysterious events don't stop there. The deaths pile up and both Dalgliesh and I wonder why he's still hanging around this weird nursing home. Why hasn't he fled the scene, typed up his resignation letter, and written some poetry about it? During the last 20 pages, James suddenly regains her grip and the plot thunders to an inevitable conclusion.
We can't write fabulous books every time, so I am chalking this offering up to that. I'm still a Dalgliesh fan and will give the next book in the series a chance.
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