Product Description

When the notorious investigative journalist Rhoda Gradwyn booked into Mr Chandler-Powell's private clinic in Dorset for the removal of a disfiguring and long-standing facial scar, she had every prospect of a successful operation by a distinguished surgeon, a week's peaceful convalescence in one of Dorset's most beautiful manor houses and the beginning of a new life. She was never to leave Cheverell Manor alive. Dalgliesh and his team are called in to investigate the murder, and later a second death, which are to raise even more complicated problems than the question of innocence or guilt.A new detective novel by P. D. James is always keenly awaited and "The Private Patient" will undoubtedly equal the success of her worldwide bestseller "The Lighthouse". It displays the qualities which P. D. James' readers have come to expect: a masterly psychological and emotional richness of characterisation, a vivid evocation of place and a credible and exciting mystery. "The Private Patient" is a powerful work of contemporary fiction.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #40 in Books
• Published on: 2008-08-28
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 416 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Given the astonishing length of the writing career of PD James (her first novel was published in 1962), it is perhaps not surprising that her work often consciously refers back to an earlier era of British crime writing -- but it's none-the worse for that. In fact, James' clever and affectionate reinventions of the devices and conventions of that era afford a particular pleasure -- as is the case with her latest, The Private Patient.

Uncompromising investigative journalist Rhoda Gradwyn has booked herself into the Chandler Powell private clinic in Dorset. She has decided to remove a disfiguring facial scar, and is looking forward to what she hopes will be a new life after the surgery. But Rhoda will not leave the clinical alive – she is killed. After her murder, Commander Adam Dalgliesh is summoned to investigate. As he begins to examine suspects, scene and motives, a second death occurs, and Dalgliesh finds himself faced with one of the most complex and challenging mysteries of his career.

In many ways, The Private Patient has the structure of a novel from the golden age of crime fiction, and James is well aware of the very best writing from that era (including Cyril Hare, who James succeeded as premier crime writer for her publisher, Faber). Needless to say, she freights in a very modern level of psychological investigation, more penetrating than that of her great predecessors. If the novel seems less initially engaging than other recent work by the author, there is perhaps a subtle agenda here: James is avoiding the more obvious reader-grabbing tactics to present a low-key investigation of character than she has chosen to deal with in recent books. If a little more patience is required than usual, the result of this understated approach pays dividends. And admirers of James (and her doughty detective Dalgliesh) will be prepared to be flexible for the pleasures of the cogently handled narrative here. --Barry Forshaw

Synopsis
When the notorious investigative journalist Rhoda Gradwyn booked into Mr Chandler-Powell's private clinic in Dorset for the removal of a disfiguring and long-standing facial scar, she had every prospect of a successful operation by a distinguished surgeon, a week's peaceful convalescence in one of Dorset's most beautiful manor houses and the beginning of a new life. She was never to leave Cheverell Manor alive. Dalgliesh and his team are called in to investigate the murder, and later a second death, which are to raise even more complicated problems than the question of innocence or guilt.A new detective novel by P. D. James is always keenly awaited and "The Private Patient" will undoubtedly equal the success of her worldwide bestseller "The Lighthouse". It displays the qualities which P. D. James' readers have come to expect: a masterly psychological and emotional richness of characterisation, a vivid evocation of place and a credible and exciting mystery. "The Private Patient" is a powerful work of contemporary fiction.

About the Author
P. D. James was born in Oxford in 1920 and educated at Cambridge High School for Girls.From 1949 to 1968 she worked in the National Health Service and subsequently in the Home Office, first in the Police Department and later in the Criminal Policy Department.All that experience has been used in her novels.She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and of the Royal Society of Arts and has served as a Governor of the BBC, a member of the Arts Council, where she was Chairman of the Literary Advisory Panel, on the Board of the British Council and as a magistrate in Middlesex and London.She has won awards for crime writing in Britain, America, Italy and Scandinavia, including the Mystery Writers of America Grandmaster Award.She has received honorary degrees from seven British universities, was awarded an OBE in 1983 and was created a life peer in 1991.In 1997 she was elected President of the Society of Authors. She lives in London and Oxford and has two daughters, five grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

Customer Reviews

PD James keepts up her standards
It's amazing how PD James has managed to keep up a steady stream of excellent novels featuring Adam Dalgliesh. I think they are more novels than crime fiction as the detection of the murders is peripheral to the exploration of the characters and their interactions. Her writing style is quite complex with long sentences and many characters to keep track of and, in my experience, better suited to be read than heard as an audio book (of which I have some in this series).

Repetitive and Prolix
I have been finding PD James's books more and more disappointing. They have never been simply detective novels, always more novels with a detective theme. James takes up pages and pages with description - a lot of it marvellous and atmospheric, but much of it going nowhere. A whole paragraph devoted to someone coming into a room and sitting down. I am beginning to tire of Dalgliesh and his team and their way of doing things that seems to be stuck in the 1930's with talk over glasses of wine. James re-hashes the same personalities in every book - the vulnerable damaged working class woman, the bullying intellectual woman, the over-riding professional man who uses his employee to have an affair that means nothing to him but much to her. I found myself saying "here she comes again". Even Dalgliesh, formerly hugely sympathetic and interesting, has nothing to say to me any more. James introduced two friends of his fiancee into the story in a completely meaningless aside. They had no impact on the plot, they were just names. It was confusing and pointless. I realized I was skipping paragraph after paragraph of descriptive prose because I wanted to get on with the story. I shall not be buying another PD James book, and wish I had not bought this one.

Is the ageless Dalgliesh finally on the road to retirement?
Firstly, I have to say that whatever follows in this review, Baroness James's writing is up to its superb quality. The prose as ever is riveting.

However, I do have to question the superb quality of many of her characters' prose. Apart from the servants - and they are very firmly classified as such - who along with their appropriate names (Dean, Kimberley, Sharon) are given inferior qualities of speech, the people populating this book are so articulate as to make their own utterances fairly unbelievable. And the upper or middle class characters' names (police excepted) come from a Mills & Boon novel. Only the surgeon (George) has a fairly common, if slightly old-fashioned, first name - though even he has a double barrelled surname to emphasise his importance. (I stress that I have nothing against double-barrelled names, having been born with one myself, but the use of one does in a book tend to imply the owner's class.) I just wonder how often one can come across a houseful (or clinicful) of people called Rhoda, Flavia, Candace, Helena, Letitia, Marcus and Robin? Nit-picking, I know, but along with the country-house style murder mystery, the tweeds so many of the characters wear as appropriate to the country, there is a very old-fashioned feel to the book. Forensics and DNA are mentioned, but play little part in the solution to the crimes.

Having said all that, forensics have all but ruined the traditional detective novel, which is James's forte. One can understand novelists such as Lindsey Davis turning to ancient Rome, where science doesn't interfere with the detective's use of the little grey cells. Kathy Reichs and Patricia Cornwell write a different sort of book, reflecting the changing times - it is difficult to write a story where the detective works everything out by thinking about it nowadays.

But back to PD James. As other commentators have pointed out, there are more than hints at Dalgliesh's being sent into retirement. This book seems to finish with a rather abrupt tying up of loose ends all round - to the murder and to other issues personal to Dalgliesh and his team. It feels as though the author has set out to send her main character into retirement. If this is the case (and he has worn very well for a man who should have been hobbling around on a zimmer frame for some time now) then I hope James doesn't intend to hang up her pen/computer or whatever she writes with just yet. There are few writers around who can produce such fine prose.