Rating: 
Summary: Too Little Mystery in The Murder Room
Review: Seldom has such wonderful writing been attached to such an unmysterious mystery. I found myself wishing that Ms. James had skipped the mystery and just written a novel about the characters. The result would undoubtedly have been much more satisfying. Commander Adam Dalgliesh finds himself unexpectedly invited to visit an oddball museum, the Dupayne, which specializes in England between the two world wars. The founder has provided rare first editions of top novelists and representative paintings by the better artists of the time. Maintained as a private institution by the founder's children, the museum's most popular feature is the Murder Room, where the most infamous murders of the period are displayed. There's tension in the family though, as one of the children wants to have the museum closed. Soon thereafter, Dalgliesh has to call off a date with delicious Emma Lavenham, whom he met in Death in Holy Orders, to begin investigating a suspicious death at the Dupayne. MI5 wants to protect one of its own from being discovered so sensitivity is needed. Everyone on the team is quickly struck the resemblance of the crime to one that is featured in the Murder Room. What's the connection? Is there a copy cat at work here? The book's greatest strength is its powerful description of the Dupayne and those who serve it. You will feel like you have been to the museum and met the people there. The book has an extended beginning that gives you more than the usual detail about the most important characters. I felt like I had been invited to tea with them, and had a chance to settle into the story at a very leisurely pace. Of the major characters, both Ms. Tally Clutton, the housekeeper, and Dr. Neville Dupayne, son of the museum's founder, were quite memorable and convincing. Although the other major characters received a fair amount of attention, they did not come alive for me. Several minor characters received loving attention from Ms. James. I found myself wishing that their story lines had been more important. The mystery is vastly too easy to solve. You can start from any one of six or seven different directions, and come to the right conclusion. In addition, Ms. James provides an obvious clue in the first few pages after the initial crime is discovered. Shortly thereafter, the key clue also comes into play. Few readers will miss the key clue after having been alerted early by Ms. James to suspect the murderer. From there, more and more clues point to the murderer. I found myself wondering why anyone would have written such an obvious mystery. A police procedural would have been a better structure for this story. The only reward for finishing the last five-eighths of the book is to find out a number of salacious family secrets and how Dalgliesh makes up for the broken date with Emma. I certainly enjoyed the book, but it is the least favorite of mine within the Adam Dalgleish series of mysteries. After finishing the book, I thought about whether anyone would have enjoyed Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None if the murderer had been apparent after the first death. I think not.
Rating: 
Summary: Somebody Wants to Close the Murder Room
Review: The lease is due for The Dupayne museum and it may not be renewed. Then the burnt body of trustee Neville Dupayne (whose vote will close the museum) is discovered in a flaming car, a crime that resembles one committed by Alfred Arthur Rouse back in 1930 and commemorated in the museum's Murder Room, an exhibit dedicated to sensational murders. Two more murders follow, each resembling a famous case. Commander Adam Dalgliesh is asked to investigate. The crime wouldn't normally be assigned to Dalgliesh and his Special Investigation Squad, but his bosses have their reasons for calling in the big guns. They say it's because someone at the museum has dealings with MI5. More murders occur, copy cats of crimes chronicled in the Murder Room. While trying to sort out all the suspects and their hidden stories, Dalgliesh patiently interviews people, sifts evidence, checks alibis and, of course, solves the case.
Nobody delves as deeply into a character as Ms. James and she's at her absolute level best here in this book that is full of twists, turns, red herrings and mystery. Well, maybe there were just one or two, too many red herrings for me, and maybe a hundred pages or so, was just a bit too long to keep me waiting for that murder. But still, as usual, from P.D. James, a very fine book. Sophie Cacique Gaul
Rating: 
Summary: A tad shopworn, but superior entry in genre
Review: DEATH IN HOLY ORDERS, the penultimate entry in the Adam Dalgliesh mystery series, raised the bar high for the latest, THE MURDER ROOM. HOLY ORDERS had revived the series, with fresh character combinations, plot tricks and the possibility of romance for the long-suffering policeman-poet Dalgliesh. The question begs, does THE MURDER ROOM measure up? One of James' strengths has always been critical description, both physical and emotional. Her invention of the museum that serves as the setting is cunning: an institution devoted to the inter-war years of the 20th century, collecting products and exhibits of art, literature, industry, and murders. The latter is not that far off an idea for such a museum: England has a fascination with intricate crimes going back centuries, and as one character states provocatively, murders have a style that befit their age. This setting alone is worth the price of the book. Plot-wise, James throws out the red herrings like a rotating sprinkler system set on high. If you've read her before, you know what she's doing. You tend to forgive her that. It's the characters in THE MURDER ROOM that I am not so pleased with. She has gone back to old stock: snotty upper class adult siblings, the women without whom, a younger adult generation that is hapless and without initiative, and the working class characters who get drawn into the mess created by the privileged characters. Dalgleish, though still sexy in an intellectual tortured soul kind of way all these years into the series, has lost some of this reader's patience and willing suspension of disbelief. In an age of cell phones and e-mail, he carries on a courtship a la the 18th century. That would be quaint but instead it is exasperating. It does, however, provide some tension up to the end, to see if it repels rather than attracts Emma, the literature professor he met in HOLY ORDERS.
Rating:
Summary: Murder Room
Review: I have long felt that P.D.James was the heir to Dorothy L. Sayers in constructing the intellectual murder mystery. Her characters and plots, revealed in her uncompromising formal use of the language, has set her apart from most of her contemporaries. Murder Room, however, reads as though it was written by committee. The plot and central characters are unquestionably James' but the setting and early character developments read as though they were assigned to a college literature class then edited by the author. The first one hundred pages are laden with contrived metaphors that distract from the flow of the story. It is as though Ms. James tried to expand a concise l50 page story into a 300+ page novel by adding minutia to every discriptive developmental scene. Even the avid followers of Adam Dalgliesh have difficulty recognizing their hero in this book. One understands that he is in love but he seems to stumble onto the solution of this mystery instead of painstakingly putting together disparate pieces that lead to a discovery. His personality is altered just enough so that long time readers detect a difference. Having written this, however, I concede that the conclusion (to the mystery not the book)is definately P.D.James. She puts the pieces together in ways that are both rational and revealing (though predictable)and then sends Dalgliesh in uncharacteristic emotional turmoil to thrust a letter into the hands of his lady and then stand mutely aside to await her acceptance or rejection. James could have written the ending either way and remained consistent with what we have learned over the years about Adam Dalgliesh.
Rating:
Summary: She did it Again!
Review: P. D. James just gets better with the years. With the Murder Room she has fine-tuned her ability to suck the reader into her settings, and bring them to care about the characters. This is nothing like any other contemporary mystery or crime novel in that she has given so much thought to the smallest, finest detail, that she is more satisfying to read than perhaps anyone else in her genre. Take a small, insular organisation such as the DuPeyne Museum and its odd but special little community, some of the most interestingly drawn and named characters (Where else could you find people named Tallulah Clutton and Muriel Godby?), then throw them into a glum daily life drawn to a halt by a gruesome murder. This would be enough to keep the reader interested, but we are also given the pleasure of the favourite detictive, Commander Adam Dalgliesh - detective, intellectual, poet, Romantic - James' and my favourite crime solver. AD as he is known in New Scotland Yard is like no other detective. He is subtle, listens, asks questions and observes quietly, always taking note of the subtle little nuances that may or may not help to reveal one of his suspects as a killer. Like all of the others, the Murder Room is written with a mastery of the English Language that cannot be found in much of what is being marketed as "literary" and always adds to the story itself. A couple of pages into it and I even started feeling English, thanks to the style and mood of the author's writing. It all comes together so nicely that before you know it, you really do feel like a fly on the wall of a London murder scene."
Rating:
Summary: True Novel
Review: It isn't even fair to list this book by PD James as a "mystery,"
because that implies it lacks the depth to be considered a true
novel. But the author puts so much detail and emotion into this
story, and she developes it so completely, it can't be anything else.
PD James is such a careful, detailed craftsman, she spends more
than the first 100 pages just introducing the characters. And
it is worth it.
The action takes place in and near a private, rather specialized
museum on the outskirts of London, at the edge of one of the great parks, and as the police investigate, the mystery grows.
The Commander is called into a meeting which includes some officials higher up than he expects, including representatives
from Special Branch, MI5, MI6, the Ministry, and he is told his
special squad will be handling the matter. And before the original murder is solved, another takes place, and the police
have to expand their investigation.
As happens, there are some side issues, with collateral actions
taking place involving some in the higher social classes, as well as at least one Diplomat, so the police are urged to solve the crimes without ruffling too many feathers while doing so.
This author can bring together more divergent elements, while making it so smooth as to appear effortless, that it's easy to
forget just what talent she brings to this type writing.
This is a fairly long book, for a mystery, but it is gripping at
all times, and it will continually engage most readers. It will
definitely be difficult to put down. Don't start this book until you know you can devote some significant time to it.
Rating:
Summary: The Sincerest Form of Flattery
Review: Adam Dalgliesh has been solving mysteries for P. D. James for some time now. There are something like fifteen of them, and like fine wine, each story appears when it is ready, not when a publisher needs more income. It has been some time since James' last ('Death in Holy Orders') and it was a great pleasure to discover 'The Murder Room' sitting on the shelves. If P. D. James were to be defined by a genre, then one would call her a specialist in police procedurals. But she hardly fits the mold. Commander Adam Dalgliesh, poet and detective, is not one to follow process, and the crime is likely to require both his fine and logical eye for details as well as his sensitivity to the nature of victims and suspects. 'The Murder Room' unfolds slowly, starting with over a hundred pages of finely detailed characters description and scene setting. In this case the crimes transpire at The Dupayne, a family run museum dedicated to England between the wars. The future of the museum is in doubt, as three siblings (Neville, Caroline, and Marcus Dupayne) squabble over the signing of the lease. As tensions slowly mount, one of the museum exhibits - on the murders of the times - becomes a source of inspiration for a killer. Dalgliesh finds himself faced with a case where there is no lack of suspects, but a great lack of hard evidence. Distracting Dalgliesh (if anything can be said to distract him) is his developing relationship with Emma Lavenham (from 'Death in Holy Orders'). As always, all of P. D. James characters come quickly to life on the pages. You will quickly find yourself in sympathy with Tally Clutton, the museum's housekeeper. Not all are sympathetic, but it is amazing how vivid each is by the end of the book. James' books are never fast paced, and this one is no exception. There were a few early moments when I though the book might be getting away from the author. But gradually the story becomes harder and harder to put down as it moves towards a well turned finish.
Rating:
Summary: A Novelist Who Writes Mysteries
Review: I am one of those people who loves to read mysteries or espionage stories that are both fun and quick to read. For me, the ideal crime fiction novel takes four to five hours to knock out. I like the stock plots with the heroes from central casting. This is my first P.D. James crime novel and what a pleasant discovery it has been. The Murder Room is at the other end of the crime fiction spectrum. Whereas, Eric Ambler or Georges Simenon economically sketch out their tales, P.D. James takes the time to build the back story and flush out even the minor characters. James is not in a rush to tell her story. She has the patience and talent to elevate the humble crime story to another luxurious level. The Murder Room is a book to sit back and enjoy. There is no need to rush this pleasure. If you can afford the CD's, Charles Keating's great voice only adds to the sensory pleasure. All in all, a decadent treat.
Rating:
Summary: Second-class 'Room'
Review: James lays out some stunning setpieces and intriguing themes in "Murder Room," but it never quite comes together. I was hoping for more description of the inter-war years and psychological insight into Dalgliesh, but he becomes more like a chick-lit "white knight" in every book. James can't seem to get beyond his devotion for the annoyingly perfect Emma to involve him in any depth in the actual mystery. And some of the plot twists were laughable excursions into '70s style "decadence." Please, I appreciate James' reluctance to indulge in modern serial killer butchery, but orgies just don't cut it as a "horrible secret" any more. In all, well written and diverting but far from her best...
Rating:
Summary: Not her best, but still a good read.
Review: One thing about P.D. James that never ceases to amaze me is how she can fill a novel with unpleasant characters and somehow make you want to know what's going to happen to them. In THE MURDER ROOM, a specialist historical museum controlled by the three children of its founder provides the source of conflict and the scene of the crime(s). The offspring must vote whether to keep the museum alive or wind it up. Two of them are invested in its continuation, while one wants to get rid of it. The vote to keep the museum going must be unanimous-- so you know who victim #1 is going to be. After the murder, Cmdr. Adam Dalgliesh and his investigators move in, disrupting whatever might be left of normalcy for the museum, its owners, and staff.
As usual, every character has a secret to keep hidden, and their efforts to keep private things private complicate the investigation. When a second corpse is found in the murder room (an exhibit in the museum), the pace of pursuit picks up, as does the feeling of doom surrounding the entire institution. There are plenty of suspects, but the story bogs down a bit in a strange sex-for-hire scheme that turns out to be one of the skeletons in the museum's closet. When the murderer is finally revealed, it's kind of difficult to figure out exactly what the motive was. Everyone else seemed to have much better reasons for committing the murders! While all this is going on, Dalgliesh continues to brood over his on-again, off-again love relationship with one of the characters from the previous novel, DEATH IN HOLY ORDERS. Will he or won't he? In the end, that ends up being more suspenseful than the murder mystery.
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