Death of an Expert Witness by P.D. JamesMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
An interesting mix of the usual and unusual. It's normal for the murder victim to be hated by multiple people (for example, Georgette Heyer's A Christmas Party). It's also normal for a forensic lab to be involved in a murder investigation. What was unusual was that the murder victim should be one of the members of the lab, killed in the lab, and that his fellow employees should become suspects. I wonder why this plot line doesn't get more use? After all, people of all walks of life have the same kinds of personal conflicts.
Another issue I found myself contemplating, especially in these physical distancing times, was how much of my life passes without having any kind of alibi. We don't live our lives expecting to be suspected of a crime. Living alone as I do, I would have a difficult task to find another person to vouch for me for most of every day.
James saw people, their virtues and their foibles, rather clearly, in my opinion. I find her plots believable and her characters realistic. The ailing elderly, the optimistic young people, the dissatisfied wives, the hen-pecked husbands, the unhappily divorced, the drunks, the church goers, they are all represented in her novels. They feel real. I can even understand how Dalgleish has ended up in the chilly emotional state that we find him in. Once again, I am struck with the idea that we all have pasts, not all of which we would be willing to proclaim to the world, and that we will get to keep secret unless we are caught up in a serious investigation.
View all my reviews
No comments:
Post a Comment