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Title: Shroud for a Nightingale by P.D. James ISBN: 0-7432-1960-0 Publisher: Scribner Paperback Fiction Pub. Date: 04 September, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.23 (13 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: One of James' best
Comment: Adam Dalgliesh investigates the murders of two young student nurses at Nightingale House, the former by intra-gastric poisoning, the second by nicotine poisoning. His detective work leads him into a chilling world of deception, long-buried secrets, repressed sexuality, and blackmail among an almost exclusively female list of suspects.
This is James at her most provocative, her most intriguing, and her most thrilling. The plot is one of her most brilliantly conceived--not only are there plenty of well-laid clues and red herrings, but the murderer's true identity comes as a surprising twist. James' plot construction is even more sound than usual--everything fits perfectly. But anyone who reads a James novel knows that there's more to her books than just a satisfying mystery. She offers the reader a lot to think about--the motive behind the murders is both shocking and thought-provoking, and Dalgliesh is written with great sensitivity and complexity as a human being! . His subordinate, Sergeant Masterson, is a rather unsavory but interesting character, and the suspects are all extremely well-developed and vividly drawn. The setting, a dark, lonely nurse training school with a frightening history, creates atmosphere and adds suspense to an already suspenseful plot.
Read this book--you won't be disappointed.
Rating: 5
Summary: Chilling Read
Comment: I was not able to put "Shroud for a Nightingale" down. I have ready many of PD James' books. This one tops my list. Her character portraits are superb and so is the action. The cast of characters are diverse. The setting sinister. I'd call this a must read!
Rating: 4
Summary: Good, but not her best
Comment: This is an interesting work, though not one of James' best (I recommend "The Black Tower" or "The Skull Beneath the Skin" for that). The setting was great, a spooky Victorian mansion converted into a nursing school - this choice of location provided plenty of atmosphere and a restricted list of suspects.
The plot was well constructed, with the clues spaced just right, although I feel that James did cheat in a couple places. I dislike her tactic of having a character ask a question of another character, then not letting us see the answer, in order to keep from us information that the protagonist now knows. She did that in at least one place here and I find it annoying. The loose ends are tied up neatly and there's a surpising and very well done epilogue.
The characterization is where James falls down a bit. This is one of her early Dalgliesh books, and I think it shows, as most of the characters are more sketches than real persons. A big revelation about one character's past, near the end of the book, comes as something of a "so what?", since we don't really care about the character. Nurse Goodale was the only one I felt really stood out as a person. Even Dalgliesh seems to swing between supercilious and nasty, and he doesn't come off as a character a reader would care to spend more time with.
These flaws aside, I'd glady recommend this to any fan of the series, although it's not a good introduction for a non-fan ("A Mind to Murder" is perhaps best for that). Not on par with her best, but pretty good overall.
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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: A Mind to Murder by P.D. James ISBN: 0743219589 Publisher: Scribner Paperback Fiction Pub. Date: 22 May, 2001 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: Unnatural Causes by P.D. James ISBN: 0743219597 Publisher: Scribner Paperback Fiction Pub. Date: 31 July, 2001 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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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): $13.00 |
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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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