P. D. James

[NiceguyEddie]

I noticed that there was no thread on P. D James.

I don't know what others feel, but for me she is the best living crime writer. I know she may be considered old fashioned in that she writes the closed group whodunnits, but I love her writing and I love trying to work out who the murderer is. I also enjoy the environments she sets her novels in. Even the cliches like the armchairs on either side of the open fire.

Best ones?

Well Death in Holy Orders is up there. Devices & Desires was very good & I also enjoyed The Children of Men. I must watch the film!

[FishAndChips]

I've had a P D James on my shelf for some time now. I will read it one day :)

I didn't know she wrote children of men. I missed it at the cinema but would like to watch it.

[happyanddandy]

I have read most of PD James books, the Adam Dalgleish ones and Cordelia Grey ones. I have read some more than once - I really enjoyed them. I haven't read the later ones. I loved the character of Adam Dalgleish, a thoughtful poet as well as a detective. It's a very long time since I picked up PDJ - must add to TBR :smile2:

[NiceguyEddie]

It's a very long time since I picked up PDJ - must add to TBR :smile2:

If you haven't read Death in Holy Orders, you should pick that one up. I think it's one of her best.

[happyanddandy]

I think I picked up a second hand copy recently of that book - I will have to check at home later - sadly at work now :mrgreen:

[Rosie]

If you haven't read Death in Holy Orders, you should pick that one up. I think it's one of her best.

P.D. James is a wonderful writer. I love her Adam Dalgleish novels. I enjoyed her last one 'The Light House' but agree with you that 'Death in Holy Orders' is one of her best:)

[Angel]

I love P.D. James as well. She is certainly one of our more talented female crime writers. Death in Holy Orders was brilliant. The Lighthouse was also enjoyable

Martin Shaw is absolutely delectable as Adam Dalgleish and makes the drama even more enjoyable to watch ;)

[ii]

I must disagree. I tried reading The Murder Room, but for me there's something wrong if I'm on the page 130 in a detective story and noone has died yet! In a word: boring. I was thinking "come on! Kill someone already!" which of course made me feel absolutely terrible, eventhough I was only thinking of a book. I don't know, maybe I've just gotten too used to the Agatha Christie's.

[NiceguyEddie]

The Murder Room was not her best, but still it is not untypical P. D. James to get so far in before a murder. She is introducing characters and the environment and atmosphere. For me those are part of the pleasures of her books.

[ii]

Oh, okay, so maybe I should have started with something else. Thank you, for telling me.

I guess I just approach it from the different angle. I like to first have the body (gosh, this sounds so horrible!) and then start digging around, figuring out the people and events leading to the crime. If you continue on that thought, I don't want to get to know the people first, then suddenly, once I've started to have opinions about them and maybe like them, someone ends up dead. And more over, someone of those people I already know is the killer! After all, I get invelved emotionally, I still cry during Lion King.

From a totally unbiased point of view, it's nice to see stories, that are fundamentally detective stories, to be more than these single layered whodunnit-mysteries. But I still don't wish for my newfound friends to turn out to be murderers.

[NiceguyEddie]

But I still don't wish for my newfound friends to turn out to be murderers.

But it's the same with Agatha Christie novels, though. It's nearly always a likable character that ends up being the villain.

Try Death in Holy Orders or Devices & Desires. I can't remember the page numbers of the first murders, but I was a little disappointed with The Murder Room. It was far from her best.

Do bear in mind that for the followers of the Dalgleish books, there is also the ongoing affair with (name escapes me) which is now into the third book & will he won't he marry her (or even get past "first base"). Anyway, my point is that P. D. James is a crime writer, but her books are about more than just crime.

[ii]

Oh, that is true. It's never the shadiest of characters. But still, you've only barely gotten the names straight, when someone dies, so as you get to know them you have that nagging voice at the back of your head going "it could be them".

I will. Boy, was everyone right about the new additions to the TBR list. Just few days and.. wow. You all are good! Anyways, I'll let you know once I get on with either one of those books. I am willing to give her another try.

You know what, I think that's part of what bothered me because I wan't expecting that. So all the extra drama he had going on seemed like an intrusion to that traditional style of detective stories. Had someone told me beforehand about that, I might have taken a more positive attitute towards it.

[Roger53]

In all the detective stories I read I very rarely get the murderer right. I'd make a lousy detective.

I agree that Devices and Desires and Death in Holy Orders are probably the best, and that Murder Room was not quite up there perhaps with some of the others. Certain Justice was about the same level perhaps as Murder Room. I feel she has gotten better over time though, whereas a lot of writers are the other way around. Starting writing rubbish toward the end of their careers.

But she is excellent, and as someone said, there is so much more that just the detective story. I love the Adam Dalgliesh books where he is down in Norfolk, motoring through the countryside, and reminiscing about his younger days in that area.

I saw PD James many years ago, before she was a really big deal, in a bookshop meet and greet type thing. She was really nice.

[Merflerher]

I have read most of PD James books, the Adam Dalgleish ones and Cordelia Grey ones.

I liked the Cordelia Gray stories very much and wish she'd written more with her as the central character. I find Adam Dalgleish a bit too good to be true sometimes - does he have any faults?

[happyanddandy]

I liked the Cordelia Gray stories very much and wish she'd written more with her as the central character. I find Adam Dalgleish a bit too good to be true sometimes - does he have any faults?


Can't commit to a relationship is all I can remember? :smile2: