Thursday, March 20, 2014

Review: The Murder Room (Adam Dalgliesh, #12)


P.D James creates a world around her mysteries, probably better than any other mystery writer I know. Such is the case here, when rocks the DuPayne Museum. A small, eccentric museum dedicated to the history of the interwar period, the DuPayne's showpiece is a gallery dedicated to period murders. Full of macabre displays and artifacts, "The Murder Room" appears to have provided inspiration for a serial killer. People in and around the museum are being killed in the same manner as the most notable murders displayed in the gallery. Dalgliesh and his team try to discover the killer as the body count rises.

This is a mystery with a complex plot. It has many moving parts, and numerous richly drawn characters. Set in the waning fall, the atmosphere is appropriately dark and gloomy. I figured out who the murderer was, and I suspected why, which is unusual for me with James's books. There were more direct clues to murderer and motive in this one. In sum, an excellent mystery with a richly-drawn atmosphere.

P.D. James, The Murder Room (Vintage, 2003) ISBN: 1400076099 

2 comments:

Unknown said...

a lot of information and what we can know, all those things. Everything has a connection with each other. friv 7

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