The Murder Room

Rating:
Summary: Pleasing but "slowish" 16th novel from great British writer
Review: PD James, "a", if not "the", grand dame of English mystery literature, has given us yet another in the Scotland Yard Commander Adam Dalgliesh series. Fundamentally police procedurals, James' novels typically employ very solid character work and evocative scene setting to channel our thoughts and imagery along many more lines than just the "whodunit" plot at hand. Making some allowances for our author's 83 years of age, we find some of the familiar setup work and drawing out of personas as in her earlier writing. But the plot per se is like a long and somewhat tiring game of "Clue"! Set in an obscure DuPayne Museum, dedicated to art, literature, and criminal murder activities of England between the two world wars (talk about a narrow niche), we soon become all too familiar with the limited cast of players, almost for sure one of whom is the villain, presuming some crime is in the offing. It takes a full 100 pages or so before a murder occurs to get things moving, and before it's over, a second murder and a third attempt happen before the perpetrator is ID'd -- who then makes things easy with an almost immediate confession. A mysterious driver leaving the scene is one of a few red herrings not cleared up til near the end. And a small sub-plot involving Adam's fledgling romance with college prof Emma, and whether marriage is on the horizon, is almost as compelling a mystery as the central story, despite the very few pages devoted to it.

We feel this is a good book but not the best of the author's efforts. The middle book gets really dry, yet Adam's love life difficulties could have added a lot of fun and human interest had it been given more air time. Some of the familiar sidekicks, especially faithful Kate Miskin, seemed to get shorter shrift than usual somewhat to our dismay. While we are more than glad to see PD back, and generally enjoyed the "Murder Room", this book leads us to fear there may not be too much pizzazz left in the aged pen.

Rating:
Summary: A Classic
Review: This is another classic P. D. James mystery novel. At an age where many writers would be happy to lay down their pen (or switch off their computers) she still comes up with enthralling stories, vivid characters and plots full of surprises. Her acute observation of the human mind, foibles and reactions has sharpened with time.

The story is set in an eccentric little museum in London and the Murder Room houses exhibits relating to murders committed during the 1920's and 1930's. The focus is on a trunk that once contained the body of a murdered girl. The family who owns the museum is divided over whether to close it or continue to operate it, but some of the activities in the museum are more - shall we say "unusual" - than others and many people would be negatively affected if it closed.

Introducing characters in a mystery novel is difficult to do well, but James does it better than anyone. The reader is never left trying to remember if Neville was the doctor or the curator. She also introduces us to the peripheral characters who are affected by the crime, fleshing each one out rapidly, but leaving a clearer impression than most writers make with their main characters.

This is a mature writer, still at the peak of her power to draw readers into strong stories and to make them care about characters who may be a little off-beat, but never the usual caricatures of the English. There is a richness of texture in this book. The investigators, chiefly Adam Dalgleish and Kate Miskin have gained some maturity and a measure of understanding of themselves as well as their suspects.

I can recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a classic English mystery.

Rating:
Summary: Murder In The Murder Room
Review: For fans of P.D. James' intricately developed mystery novels featuring her protagonist Scotland Yard Commander and part-time poet, Adam Dalgliesh, "The Murder Room" will most certainly feel like familiar territory. It doesn't set any new standards, but it tells its story well, if not remarkably. People looking to try out P.D. James for the first time might do better to start with another of her works, quite possibly "Death In Holy Orders" or "A Taste For Death".

"The Murder Room" begins with Dalgliesh immersed in thoughts of trying to balance his busy work schedule with a relatively new romance in his life with Cambridge professor Emma Lavenham. His thoughts are soon interrupted when he happens across an old friend who is doing research at the Dupayne Museum, an aging structure at the edge of Hampstead Heath, which devotes its entire inventory to the British inter-war years of 1919 - 1938. There is one room in the museum, the Murder Room, which houses archival photos and some artifacts which relate to some of the grisly crimes commited within that era. Dalgliesh and his friend visit the Dupayne and, a week later, one of the three siblings who runs the museum is found burned to death in his car. Thus begins the murder inquiry, headed up by our estimable Dalgliesh and his underlings Kate Miskin, Piers Tarrant, and newcomer Benton-Smith.

P.D. James writes two kinds of murder mysteries. One starts off with the murder right away. The other waits for about 100 pages, arranging up the plot, the characters, the setting, and the motives. "The Murder Room" falls into the latter category. The author is great at developing the details of her characters' lives, and makes no exception in this novel. All of the main players are carefully drawn, and often times sympathetic. I truly felt bad for the first murder victim. James's description of place, one of her strongest talents, also does not fail here. You get a wonderful vision of the Dupayne Museum, of the cottage of Tally Clutton, the museum's cleaner, and of Cambridge in the autumn.

There are some things that count against the book, unfortunately. I didn't mind the first murder coming after page 100, but so much of what came before seemed so obviously to be set-up, that it became a tad distracting at times. Many of the characters in the novel, more so than in James's previous works, come across as rather depressed or, conversely, trite. It made for a bit of a downer. Dalgliesh's right-hand-woman, Kate Miskin, who in previous novels seemed to be growing and becoming happier as a person, is in this book sliding back into some rather blunt eruptions of bitterness. I found this disappointing. Dalgliesh's other main helper, Piers Tarrant, has angry outbursts in every other chapter. Most disconcerting. Also, the book consists of quite a few red herrings, which is not typically James's style. If what she typically presents in other stories does not directly relate to the murder itself, it will usually provide some sort of meaning to the other characters and plotlines involved. That was not so much the case here.

"The Murder Room", despite its flaws, is still a good novel. I went through it relatively quickly, and enjoyed the read, despite some of the oppressively darker aspects. P.D. James is a superb novelist and, at 83, she proves that she has lost none of her masterful literary capability. The prose is excellent. The plot is adequate. It is only a standard entry in James's long and illustrious writing career, but it is head & shoulders above many of the modern mystery novels out there today, so it most definitely recommended to fans of the genre.

Rating:
Summary: A Rich, Thrilling Murder Mystery (4.4 on a scale of 1 to 5)
Review: P.D. James is 83-years old! Yet her newest book "The Murder Room" is one of her best. It is a hard-to-put down thriller with psychological twists and nuances, a James specialty.

The DuPayne Museum, a small family run concern that specializes in the interwar years, is in danger of being closed. The lease needs to be renewed and all three Dupayne children must sign it. One, the psychiatrist brother Dr. Neville Dupayne, does not want the museum to continue. He believes in living in the present and not the past.

Well, no surprise, he doesn't get to live in the future. Early in the novel, he shows up dead in his jaguar. Enter James's hero, Detective Adam Dalgliesh, the poet/murder investigator. As always he (and James) tries to solve the murder by digging into the souls of the suspects.

And what a cast of suspects...the two remaining Dupayne children include Marcus, a cold civil servant whose career didn't reach expected heights, and Caroline, the sister whose passion is the museum and the swishy boarding school that she leads in her spare time. There is TAlly, the kindhearted housekeeper, whose life of intellectual curiosity in the city of London (visiting museums, taking courses), is supported by her job and her free cottage on the museum's property. Plus Muriel Godby, the efficient and annoying, receptionist/administrator who lives for the museum.

Dalgliesh is obsessed by this mystery-as he has been by all in the past-though he is now juggling a love interest. I wish James had delved into this more in the book: she seemed to "tack on" a scene between the two of them as a satisfying way to end the book.

However, fans of the mystery genre should savor this book.

Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful Book, Satisfying at all levels.
Review: P.D. James is by far the best mystery novelist around. Her writing, plot and character development are unsurpassable. This book is no different. It's powerful and suspenseful, and a true psychological thriller. There are a lot of copycats out there, but none can touch Ms. James. In this book Dalgliesh investigates a gruesome murder at a small private museum. This museum is dedicated to displays of art, literature, pop culture, etc. in the years in Britain between the two great wars, and one of the displays is a "murder room" where information is set out about infamous murders that happened during this time in English history. When the first murder occurs, it looks like a copycat from one of the earlier murders. Before Dalgliesh and his team can solve the first murder another body turns up which reinforces the copycat theory. Dalgliesh manages to solve the cases, but not before we see a lot of unexpected complications. James can magically transcend genres and she accomplishes that brilliantly with this novel.

Rating:
Summary: Tepid mystery about murder in a museum.
Review: "Murder Room" is the latest Adam Dalgliesh mystery from the veteran writer, P. D. James. The setting is the Dupayne Museum, a small private institution near London's Hampstead Heath. The museum features British art and cultural artifacts from 1919 to 1939. One of the museum's more popular attractions is the Murder Room where sensational murders of the time period are catalogued in detail.

Suddenly, the calm of the museum is shattered by a particularly brutal homicide, and Commander Adam Dalgleish is called in to investigate. Dalgleish and his team interview the heirs of the museum's founder, Max Dupayne, the museum's small staff, and anyone else who might shed light on the terrible tragedy. The police identify several possible suspects but, at first, no hard evidence points positively to a particular individual.

Several fatal flaws mar this mystery. James's best novels are character-driven works with intriguing themes that explore the many facets of human behavior. With one or two exceptions, the characters in "Murder Room" are an uninteresting and unappealing lot, and the endless round of police interviews with these people makes for dull reading. It is too bad that Dalgleish's personal life plays such a small role in this book. More emphasis on Adam as a human being might have livened up the novel considerably.

In addition, James includes many peripheral characters whose connection to the murders is tenuous, as well as a host of red herrings that are more irritating than challenging. Long before the book's conclusion, I found myself losing interest in the proceedings. Since I have enjoyed so many Adam Dalgleish mysteries in the past, I was very disappointed by the uninspired and slow-moving "Murder Room."

Rating:
Summary: Dame James is back!
Review: Any P.D. James is preferable to no P.D. James and while some readers may have found "The Murder Room" faint in some areas, Dame James' latest Adam Dalgleish is, well, Adam Dalgleish. How can a reader go wrong?

Granted, James has given us a new twist (Adam is in love and her traditional police procedural takes a different turn. But before one cries "soap opera," "The Murder Room" is not about Adam Dalgliesh's personal life. It is about a series of murder, a plot outline with which James is quite comfortable and her legions of fans come to expect.

Circumstances surround the undertakings (forgive the pun) of the Dupayne Museum,, a small, rather esoteric, museum devoted to the "interwar years," the period in England from 1919 to 1939. However, the rub is that the lease on the museum is about to expire and the three trustees (siblings) must agree totally on its extension or else the museum cannot continue. One brother, Dr. Neville Dupayne, is dead set (forgive the pun again) against signing; thus the demise of the museum is at hand, it appears. Quickly into the book, the good doctor is found burned alive in very suspicious circumstances and just about everyone has a motive for seeing him dead. Commander Dalgleish and his team from New Scotland Yard are called in and before this death can be solved, two others follow, all with connections to the museum.

James clearly is in charge of this narrative and, as always, controls the pace and the revelations of the investigation. Dalgleish is, as always, superb. The resolution comes not through histrionics or melodrama, but the James/Dalgleish penchant for brilliance.

Is this James' best? Hmmmm. "The best" is probably the individual reader's personal choice, as I've yet to read a "bad" James, or even a "poor" one. "The Murder Room" joins the other dozen or so Dalglieshes comfortably. It is an excellent read. ([e-mail])

Rating:
Summary: Slow to start, then becomes absorbing
Review: As another reviewer noted, the author takes her time getting started with the mystery. I was about 100 pages into the book and starting to tire of it when, finally, there was a murder. I question whether anyone but P.D. James could get away with that -- both with the editors and with readers. However, if you persist, the book is worth your time. I've been reading a lot of "thrillers," and James doesn't set that kind of pace. But there were enough twists in the book, and so many good suspects, that I didn't guess the ending ahead of time.

Rating:
Summary: an excellent read
Review: Not everyone can write a thoughtful and sedately paced mystery novel and still make it a compelling and absorbing read. For that matter, not many mystery writers can get way with devoting about a third of their book to developing the characters of the suspects and murder victim, setting the stage, and imbuing the novel with the right mood and tone before killing off the primary victim. P. D. James, however, is able to pull all of this off and do so brilliantly. For readers more interested in flashier storylines, "The Murder Room" may not be the mystery novel for them; but if you enjoy a quiet, intelligent and sensitive mystery novel, than you'll be in for a treat.

The Dupayne Museum, founded by Max Dupayne, is a private and small one dedicated to social and political history between the years of 1919 and 1939. Now, the issue of whether or not to keep the museum running has come up, and the board of trustees (made up of Max's adult children Marcus, Neville and Caroline) must decide whether or not to renew the lease. Neville is all for not renewing the lease and for closing the museum, much to the consternation of all those who work there. And because all three siblings must be unanimous in their decision to keep the museum going, it rather looks as if the Dupayne will soon close its doors. That is until Neville is murdered in a rather horrific manner. Called in to investigate the case, Commander Adam Daglish has a rather small pool of suspects to work with -- Neville's brother and sister, and the staff and volunteers -- all who, in one way or the other, were threatened by Neville's refusal to sign the new lease. Which one of the suspects decided to murder Neville in order to ensure the continued existence of the museum? If solving a perplexing murder isn't enough, Daglish must also face the unhappy truth that his job is getting in the way of his relationship with Emma Lavenham (whom we were first introduced to in "Death in Holy Orders")...

I enjoyed "The Murder Room" immensely. I liked the manner in which P. D. James constructed her story, taking the time to set the stage, introduce all the characters (so that we knew them all rather intimately), before offing her first victim. I also enjoyed her prose style and the lyrical descriptions of London. The mystery at hand was an intriguing one that was intelligently told, so that if you pay close attention, the identity of the murderer becomes apparent after a while. Some reviewers feel that "The Murder Room" is not one of P. D. James's better efforts --I, however, don't think so. And having read a whole slew of substandard mysteries lately, I can ensure you that "The Murder Room" stands head and shoulders above all those books and is a thoroughly good and worthwhile read. And if I had one complaint, it was at the rather immature attitudes of Daglish's two sidekicks, DS Kate Miskin & DS Piers Tarrant. How these two will ever fare without Daglish's wisdom and compassion I shudder to think.

Rating:
Summary: solid British investigative tale
Review: The Dupayne Museum in Hampstead Heath, England provides a deep look at the country's culture during the two decades that separated the two world wars. However, the lease on the property is almost expired and renewal requires unanimous approval of the three trustees, the adult children of founder Max Dupayne. The museum's manager Marcus Dupayne and his sister Caroline (a school principal) endorse the renewal, but the third sibling psychiatrist Neville wants to shut down the museum.

However, Neville's nay saying comes to a quick end when someone kills him using the MO of a famous homicide depicted in the Dupayne Museum. His two siblings are not the only suspects because several people have the motive of keeping the Dupayne Museum open. A widower, Police Commander Adam Dalgliesh would prefer to investigate his growing fondness for Professor Emma Lavenham, but knows he and his Special Investigation Squad must conduct an official inquiry.

The latest Dalgliesh police procedural is a solid British investigative tale that readers of the series and fans of the sub-genre will take pleasure in due to a strong cast of suspects. The story line moves forward as the Commander and his team make inquiries into a host of potential culprits each with viable means, motives, and opportunities so that the audience never quite knows who the killer is until the climax. The romance subplot never takes off and consequently is not a distracter from the lead protagonist working the case and fans don't get to see him move forward in his personal life. P.D. James shows once again why she is one of grandmasters of the mystery novel.

Harriet Klausner