Shroud for a nightingale

PD James is a good mystery writer. She's not the best mystery writer, nor my favorite mystery writer, but there's no denying that she has both skill and talent.

This installment in the Adam Dalgliesh series takes place once again at a hospital (though this time a different kind of hospital) and involves a tad too much hospital administration for my taste. But the writing is strong and the mystery is well-plotted. There's plenty of misdirection to keep you on your toes and the action ramps up in the second half to keep the pages turning. Ultimately that's what I look for in a good mystery, so this one got a solid four stars from me.

The reason PD James is not up there with my favorite mystery writers is she tends to write in a more serious, misanthropic voice. I recently read a quote of hers that insisted that mystery writers should be taken as seriously as other writers and it struck me that she writes as if she's afraid someone might accuse her of writing cheap genre fiction. With some of the “cozies” I've seen out there I get where she is coming from, but some of the best mystery writers, like Dorothy Sayers and Agatha Christie, write as if they don't care one way or the other who takes them seriously and I prefer that. I like to see some characters have an optimistic viewpoint on life and some characters that genuinely care for other people. It doesn't all have to be light, but it can't all be bitter either. That's why I prefer classic detective mysteries to the hard-boiled variety.

Anyway, I intend to keep going with the series until the end.