Book Club

[Oznell]

"The Private Patient"       by P.D. James

I don't know how long to rant on about the peerless P.D. James, since she's been discussed here, and is so well-known among mystery fans and in the literary world in general.

But, for those unfamiliar,  will add a few comments about her at end of alert.

If I'm not mistaken, this was James' last "Adam Dalgliesh" novel, coming out around 2008. 

Setting the scene:   A controversial middle-aged journalist, Rhoda Gradwyn, has a troubled past and a disfiguring scar down her cheek, left by her alcoholic father, which she has finally decided to have removed.  She chooses a fashionable, high society plastic surgeon, and for privacy, elects to have it done at his beautiful, remote country manor (which partly doubles as a fully equipped private hospital).

Possible spoilers in the next two paragraphs:

It's an enclosed, little hot-house world, with retired academics working on site, a pair of married, haute cuisine chefs, a seductive but competent chief nurse (who may or may not be having an affair with the surgeon), mysterious hangers-on and vacationing visitors, and on and on...

Rhoda's presence there sets off long-buried passions and inevitably, horrific crimes.   Then impeccable, charismatic Scotland Yard Commander Adam Dalgliesh arrives with his team... 

P.D. James is a legend.  When her husband, Army doctor Connor White, came back from his military service mentally disturbed, the mother of two became a civil servant to support the family, rising in the wee hours to write her brilliant, instantly acclaimed novels.

Favorite earlier novels with Inspector, then Commander Dalgliesh:   "Shroud for a Nightingale";    "Devices and Desires"

Favorite P.D. James non-Dalgliesh novel:   "Innocent Blood"

PBS's first portrayal of Adam Dalgliesh in their dramatizations of P.D. James work, was done by rangy British actor Roy Marsden.  He was fab at embodying the cerebral, enigmatic poet/detective!

If you already like P.D. James, you would probably like Minette Walters, another Englishwoman, who mines somewhat similar pychological turf in her detective fiction.  Recommend "Fox Evil".

Edited to add:   But I just realized I should mention, for the tender-hearted, that, near the beginning of Minette Walters' "Fox Evil",  a sweet little fox has something bad happen to him.  It's a brief, transitory scene, but I hate to be sand-bagged by violent scenes myself, so be aware.
            

[Judaline]

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@Oznell wrote:

"The Private Patient"       by P.D. James

I don't know how long to rant on about the peerless P.D. James, since she's been discussed here, and is so well-known among mystery fans and in the literary world in general.

But, for those unfamiliar,  will add a few comments about her at end of alert.

If I'm not mistaken, this was James' last "Adam Dalgliesh" novel, coming out around 2008. 

Setting the scene:   A controversial middle-aged journalist, Rhoda Gradwyn, has a troubled past and a disfiguring scar down her cheek, left by her alcoholic father, which she has finally decided to have removed.  She chooses a fashionable, high society plastic surgeon, and for privacy, elects to have it done at his beautiful, remote country manor (which partly doubles as a fully equipped private hospital).

Possible spoilers in the next two paragraphs:

It's an enclosed, little hot-house world, with retired academics working on site, a pair of married, haute cuisine chefs, a seductive but competent chief nurse (who may or may not be having an affair with the surgeon), mysterious hangers-on and vacationing visitors, and on and on...

Rhoda's presence there sets off long-buried passions and inevitably, horrific crimes.   Then impeccable, charismatic Scotland Yard Commander Adam Dalgliesh arrives with his team... 

P.D. James is a legend.  When her husband, Army doctor Connor White, came back from his military service mentally disturbed, the mother of two became a civil servant to support the family, rising in the wee hours to write her brilliant, instantly acclaimed novels.

Favorite earlier novels with Inspector, then Commander Dalgliesh:   "Shroud for a Nightingale";    "Devices and Desires"

Favorite P.D. James non-Dalgliesh novel:   "Innocent Blood"

PBS's first portrayal of Adam Dalgliesh in their dramatizations of P.D. James work, was done by rangy British actor Roy Marsden.  He was fab at embodying the cerebral, enigmatic poet/detective!

If you already like P.D. James, you would probably like Minette Walters, another Englishwoman, who mines somewhat similar pychological turf in her detective fiction.  Recommend "Fox Evil".

Edited to add:   But I just realized I should mention, for the tender-hearted, that, near the beginning of Minette Walters' "Fox Evil",  a sweet little fox has something bad happen to him.  It's a brief, transitory scene, but I hate to be sand-bagged by violent scenes myself, so be aware.
            

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@Oznell  You didn't really say if you liked the book?

[Oznell]

I did like it, @Judaline .   It didn't have quite the length and the absorbing, sheer accumulation of detail of some of her earlier books.  But some people prefer a more streamlined, less "philosophical" narrative anyway.  It was suspenseful, and toward the end, as Dalgliesh was closing in, I was totally caught up.

Spoiler

There was a loose end, that I would have liked to have had her tie up, that she didn't.   Or at least, not explicitly.   When the surgeon asked her, with some curiosity, why she had waited so long to have the gash in her cheek corrected, she gave a tantalizingly mysterious non-answer.   James referred to this several times in the story, but it was never overtly answered-- or if it was, I missed it.  

[Judaline]

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@Oznell wrote:

I did like it, @Judaline .   It didn't have quite the length and the absorbing, sheer accumulation of detail of some of her earlier books.  But some people prefer a more streamlined, less "philosophical" narrative anyway.  It was suspenseful, and toward the end, as Dalgliesh was closing in, I was totally caught up.

Spoiler

There was a loose end, that I would have liked to have had her tie up, that she didn't.   Or at least, not explicitly.   When the surgeon asked her, with some curiosity, why she had waited so long to have the gash in her cheek corrected, she gave a tantalizingly mysterious non-answer.   James referred to this several times in the story, but it was never overtly answered-- or if it was, I missed it.  

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Re: Spoiler @Oznell I know what you mean. I hate when that happens. Irritating.