|
[ Home ]
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
Commander Adam Dalgleish is called in on a murder case taking place in a museum in the Hampstead Heath area. The museum is privately owned and dedicated to displaying artifacts and photos of events that occurred in Britain between WWI and WWII. The murdered man was one of the three siblings owners, Neville Dupayne, a psychiatrist, who was the only one of the three who wanted to close the museum and who had the power to do it. The suspects include his brother and sister and the museum employees, each of whom would be losing something were the museum to close. One of the museum rooms is called the Murder Room because it contains the displays of murders peculiar to the 1919-1939 era. Although Neville was set on fire in a garage, his killing resembles one of the murders publicized in the Murder Room. In fact, a second killing is also discovered with a body in a trunk kept in the Murder Room, leaving the implication that a copycat killer is on the loose. Dalgleish is assisted by Detective Inspectors Kate Miskin and Piers Tarrant, and a newer, younger officer, Francis Benton-Smith. In this story, unlike some others, James keeps the private lives of these assistants to a minimum, which I think is a good thing. I think the attention paid to Kate Miskin's personal problems in A TASTE FOR DEATH detracted from the otherwise high quality of that book. James is one of the most literate and interesting of all current mystery writers, and her attention to detail and to the precise word makes her books very worthy of being re-read. When I had the opportunity to talk to her around 1989, she told me that she planned to stop writing after she became 70, and she probably was around 68 at the time. Fortunately for readers, she has written several more good books during her 70s and even into her 80s. Unfortunately, in THE MURDER ROOM she seems tired. The book is still much better than many mysteries that are found in print, but she shows some problems. To take an example, on page 224, referring to someone's baby, Kate asks the mother, "How old is she?" and the mother replies, "Four months ... and I call her Becky." On page 225 the mother tells of a time when she took Becky with her to see someone "about six months ago." Less egregious, but showing a repetitious phrasing that James would not have used during her prime, we find on page 271 "It was obvious that the request was unwelcome," and on page 277 "The question was unwelcome." On page 129 Dalgleish is told that the surviving Dupaynes are getting impatient, and Dalgleish thinks that was understandable because Neville "after all, had been their brother." Am I too picky in thinking this kind of writing is too pedestrian for someone of James's caliber? There's also a lack of her customary clarity in describing some scenes. Although James is usually almost as good in developing her characters as she is in the beauty of her prose, in THE MURDER ROOM she seems to drop some aspects that she brings up in revealing the main actors. What appears to be a clue when a trustees' meeting is interrupted by a phone call for Neville, who is told that one of his patients killed herself and tried to kill her husband, has no further bearing on the plot, even though Neville's reaction to this news ("surprised that his legs could carry him ... trembling ... possessed by terrifying anger") makes it appear that there is some hidden significance here. The first sentence of a new chapter reveals what seems to be a highly significant factor in the life of James Calder-Hale, the museum's curator and one of the main characters, but it turns out to have been a throwaway line. Moreover, there is a repetition of plot that was highly acceptable in the Perry Mason mysteries, but is less so in PD James's Dalgleish novels. Her stories frequently involve isolated settings, a family and close-knit associates, below the surface tensions, and secrets from the past, but THE MURDER ROOM has even more déjà vu than most others and is reminiscent especially of two of her recent novels, A CERTAIN JUSTICE and ORIGINAL SIN. THE MURDER ROOM is worthy of being read. I would guess that many publishers would be happy with their authors producing the faults I find in THE MURDER ROOM if in return they could get the overall quality found in James's books, including this one. If this newest book of hers suffers a little, it's mainly in comparison with the extremely high standards that she herself set.
Reviewed by Eugene Aubrey Stratton, November 2003
This book has more than one review. Click here to show all.
[ Top ]
QUICK SEARCH:
Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
[ Home ]
| 
