P.D. James, Unnatural Causes
Superintendent Adam Dalgliesh is trying to forget a very straining investigation and is struggling with self-doubt and fear of commitment in his relationship with girlfriend Deborah Riscoe. Therefore, he decides to spend a ten-day holiday away from it all, with his beloved spinster aunt Jane Dalgliesh, in her cottage in Suffolk…
If Dalgliesh hoped to find an answer to his questions and a quiet holiday watching birds with his aunt, he is soon disillusioned. Just after his arrival, several neighbors, all people connected to each other by their love of literature (they are either writers themselves or critics) gather at Jane Dalgliesh’s cottage: they want Dalgliesh’s opinion on a very puzzling mystery. Maurice Seton, a famous mystery writer, has disappeared. He hasn’t been seen for two days in the London Club where he was staying. Even more baffling is the fact that he has sent, as he usually does when away, his typed work to his secretary. But she is adamant that this latest manuscript cannot be his own work. As they discuss the writer’s disappearance, the police call: Maurice Seton has been found dead in a small dinghy, both hands chopped…
Suspicion bordering on paranoia soon creeps upon the small community of writers: who could kill Maurice Seton in a manner which has been dropped as a hint for one of his novels by fellow romance writer Celia Calthrop? Inspector Reckless is dispatched on the case. Immediately, a natural antipathy arises between him and Dalgliesh, reinforced by the fact that Reckless suspects Jane Dalgliesh herself. However, Reckless will include Dalgliesh in the investigation since he has valuable information on the suspects whom he has known, however remotely, for years…
Unnatural Causes is a well-crafted mystery, though slightly old fashioned (it was written in 1967), with a very atmospheric description of the Suffolk coast, a pretty satisfying resolution, and characters as complex as they can be within a 256-pages development. These elements combined with a flawless style make P.D. James one of the great British women mystery writers…
Rating: 4/5
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