The Private Patient

The Baroness James of Holland Park, i.e., P.D. James, has pushed her beloved Adam Dalgliesh out into the publishing world once again. The Private Patient is latest of the Dalgliesh mystery novels. Despite Baroness James' age (88) she has lost none of her acuity, subtlety, and inventiveness.

The "private patient" is Rhoda Gradwyn, a well-known scandal reporter in the British tabloid tradition. She digs up the dirt no matter where it is or who it destroys. She has asked a cosmetic surgeon to remove a prominent and ugly facial scar that her father had inflicted on her during a drunken violent spree when she was a child. But why - the first mystery - had she waited so long to get rid of the disfigurement? “Because I no longer have need of it” is all she would say.

Her murder takes place in a gloomy historic manor house in Dorset, which the surgeon has converted into an expensive private clinic where his clients can be operated on and recover. Dr. Chandler-Powell, the surgeon, was successful in reducing the scar on Rhoda Gradwyn's face. It was unfortunate - and bad for business - that she was strangled in her bed that very night. Sounds like a case for the local constabulary. You would think. But no. The Prime Minister gets involved and wants Dalgliesh to investigate.

As is usually the case in a P.D. James novel, the threads of the murder start in the past. And there is a lot of not-so-pleasant history with several members of the clinic and household. It's the typical Jamesian multiple red herrings to throw you off the scent. It's not all that surprising about who did it, really. But the way James gets to the solution is the joy in the book.

You have to read P.D. James the way she writes - it's never hurried, action packed, or even bodice-ripping thrilling. It's more psychological, introspective, and more subtle. It's a leisurely read; no frantic turning of the pages to get to the solution.

There is also a side story of Dalgliesh's love life with Emma Lavenham, the professor he met several novels back. They're planning their wedding when the murder occurs and poor Adam has to leave his lady love in the lurch to deal with florists, caterers, etc., plus a family crisis that he can't help her with. So, of course, he's torn about his duty to his job and his duty to his fiance. A side note: there is a tie-in with Jane Austen in this story. Initially, Emma's best friend Clara despised Dalgliesh. But they warm to each other, sort of. James describes the home of Clara and her partner Annie "where no one entered without - in Jane Austen's words - the sanguine expectation of happiness." And at the end after the wedding, Clara and Annie make note of the end of Emma and Mrs. Elton's comment, "Very little white satin, very few lace veils; a most pitiful business." Sounds like a pretty snarky thing to say about one's best friend, but they then remember how the novel ends. "But, in spite of these deficiencies, the wishes, the hopes, the confidence, the predictions of the small band of true friends who witnessed the ceremony, were fully answered in the perfect happiness of the union." At least Dalgliesh didn't have to make Mr. Knightley's sacrifice and move in with her father!

In the purview of P.D. James' work this is not one of the superior novels. However, an average James is better than many other mystery writers' best work. Check it out.