P. D. James

[SiameseCat]

I read several in the past simply because I kept hearing she was so exceptional. Which is why I can't remember which ones they were.

My conclusion is that her stories are in fact well thought out, but they're not at all well written. Paired down to a quarter of the volume of words they would be good though. But she describes everything to death. It's not the lack of graphic murders but that the endless descriptions kill the atmosphere that might be.

[gvancott]

While I am a major fan of mysteries set in the UK, I have come to the conclusion that I don't much care for PD James. I don't care  for the puzzle mystery format and there seems to be very little character development of the police characters, especially Dagliesh. I prefer Reginald Hill (shame he died without finishing off the series), Ian Rankin and most recently Stephen Booth.

[Bebecat]

I am not a fan of PD James either, gvancott. I prefer Inspector Morse by colin dexter, as far as detectives go. And I,truly found "death at pemberly" to be unreadable. I know that is not one of her usual books, but not fond of dagleish either.

[SiameseCat]

I've read a good number of them just because they were meant to be superb. Don't remember the titles any longer. But I would say that her story ideas are mostly very good. It's the excessively wordy writing that smothers any suspense. You could condense her books to a quarter of their volume and nothing relevant would be missing.

 

A great example of the opposite is Tony Hillerman (regardless of the different location). His books were short, but they brought the country and culture to life on top of amazing mysteries.