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Title: Original Sin an Adam Dalgliesh Mystery by P.D. James ISBN: 0-446-67922-4 Publisher: Warner Books Pub. Date: 01 May, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.75 (20 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Not just any mystery novel!
Comment: Original Sin provided me with further confirmation (as if I needed it) of why P.D. James is among my favorite authors. This book is well plotted and written beautifully. The book's pace is leisurely without ever being slow -- and it is this pace which allows James to develop a "classic" mystery that at the same time serves as a character study and morality play. I have always enjoyed James' use of the character study (some of the finest chapters in this book involve the inner workings of the most peripheral characters). As with A Taste for Death, the last 100 pages are perhaps the most exciting, although as soon as I read the first chapter, the prose grabbed me and I knew I was in another James work.
Rating: 4
Summary: Standard James mystery is a cut above
Comment: P.D. James is one of the best novelists alive, and she has gained a considerable reputation as a mystery writer. It's to the point that she was created Baroness James of Holland park a dozen years ago. She writes these Adam Dalgliesh mysteries, which are complex, textured stories that have multiple points of view, and involving, engaging characters that act in interesting ways, for intelligent motives.
In this volume, Dalgliesh is consulted about a series of practical jokes that have occurred at a venerable publishing house that's situated in a large mansion on the banks of the Thames River. He declines to get involved, and two weeks later there's a murder on the premises. The partners of the firm are from two extended families, though the leadership has recently passed from a pair of elderly men to a younger generation, dominated by the first victim, a vigorous man with a somewhat distasteful personality.
Dalgliesh steps into this mystery with his assistant Kate Miskin and a new one, Daniel Aaron, and he spends most of this book trying to disentangle the various threads of the crime and the things that are going on. The plot thickens, more murders occur, and the plot speeds up as things proceed.
James is somewhat like Christie, but different in one significant way that makes her a considerable improvement. Christie's novels were very plot-driven, with characters that didn't come to life much. The one exception was the main detective, and then you had to read several books to get into their character and get to know them. James by contrast writes a good plot---her books are almost as complex as Christie---but they are equally populated with characters that are memorable in and of themselves.
This is one of James' better books, and I only give it four stars as opposed to five because it gets a bit slow in the middle, and the murderer turns out to be a bit improbable. Other than that, the story is fine and I enjoyed it.
Rating: 4
Summary: Another good one with Dalgleish
Comment: Original Sin, PD James' 12th novel takes place within the modern publishing world.
There's a Dickensian charm to the setting, Peverell Press on the grounds of Innocent House, built to mimic a Venetial palace in 1792 by the firm's founder. One can almost feel the damp, smell the nearby Thames, and hear the click of heels down a foggy alleyway.
When a recently fired senior editor's murder is quickly followed by that of the new director who fired her, Dalgleish is called. Turns out there are plenty of motives and plenty of suspects to keep the investigators busy - and to keep PD James' loyal readers entertained.
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Title: A Taste for Death by P.D. James ISBN: 0345430581 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 28 November, 1998 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Devices & Desires by P.D. James ISBN: 0446359750 Publisher: Warner Books Pub. Date: 01 February, 1991 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: A Certain Justice by P.D. James ISBN: 0345430573 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 31 October, 1998 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Cover Her Face by P.D. James ISBN: 0743219570 Publisher: Scribner Paperback Fiction Pub. Date: 01 May, 2001 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: The Black Tower by P.D. James ISBN: 0743219619 Publisher: Scribner Paperback Fiction Pub. Date: 18 September, 2001 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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