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Ron Miller's DARK CORRIDORS VOL. 5, No. 1 |
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P.D. James' THE MURDER ROOM THE NEW ADAM DALGLIESH MYSTERY
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Let the celebration begin:
The Crime Queen is Back!
of TheColumnists.com
While gleefully prowling through the new selections in a bookstore in Victoria, B.C., last month, I happened to come across what appeared to be a new Adam Dalgliesh mystery novel by P.D. James, England's Queen of Crime. I believe I startled a great many innocent Canadians, some perhaps as far away as Vancouver, with my unrestrained whoop of delight.
You see, nothing gives me more pleasure than the publication of a new P.D. James novel. (Well, excuse the hyperbole, but the things that might give me more pleasure surely have no place in a publication like this one!) That's because there's never any letdown. The Baroness James never disappoints.
So, I'm happy to say she doesn't this time either, even though she's now in her 80s and has every excuse to start tapering off a bit. The new book, now widely available in a new American edition ("The Murder Room," Knopf, $25.95), is beautifully crafted, totally absorbing--and it takes Dalgliesh to a new stage in his life that many of his fans have been praying for without letup for years.
James' Dalgliesh mysteries are among the very best being written anywhere. This gifted writer manages to give us very modern, contemporary stories that touch on vital issues in our time while also preserving much of what's truly valuable from the classic traditional mystery style of her original influence from England's "Golden Age of Mystery," Dorothy L. Sayers.
"The Murder Room" refers to a special chamber within a grand old manor house that has been converted into a museum called The Dupayne, which honors the key events in England between World War I and World War II. The events of the room in question include some of England's most notorious murders. Dalgliesh has just toured the chamber with a friend who's connected to The Dupayne when a murder is committed on the grounds which seems to echo one of the classic murders depicted there.
And it's an especially ghastly murder: One of the family owners of the museum is burned to death while sitting in his sports car in a private garage on the grounds. The fact that he's the family member who was trying to close the museum down certainly arouses the suspicions of Commander Adam Dalgliesh of New Scotland Yard.
Later another corpse turns up in the very trunk where the victim of another famous murder originally was found, conveniently on display in The Murder Room. Is there a copycat killer at large, trying to emulate the "masterpieces" of the killers from the distant period between the world wars? That's certainly worth considering.
Though James' novel takes place in present time--and aludes to many contemporary issues of 21st century England--it functions like a traditional "cozy" mystery, with a great many viable "suspects" all coming in and out of The Dupayne Museum, the somewhat isolated central locale of the novel.
Longtime fans of the Dalgliesh mysteries, which all began with "Cover Her Face" more than 30 years ago, also will be delighted to learn that the introspective, lonely, poetic widower is still seeing Emma, the quality woman he met in his last adventure, "Death in Holy Orders," though his devotion to duty has made him a little neglectful lately and their promising relationship has now reached a crisis point.
Dalgliesh and his team of special investigators have all they can handle sorting through the leads on this baffling case. Both the brother and sister of the burned man have motives because they're trying to save the museum founded by their late father. Several of the paid employes of the museum also have motives because they've invested much of their lives in the place and dread the notion they might have to start over again once the place is shuttered. Then there's the burned man's daughter--a wild and crazy girl who desperately needs money and has been pestering him for it. And how about the young moron who does garden and odd job duty on the estate while living off the grounds with a retired military officer who fancies young boys?
As usual, James makes you care about most of these people as well as her brooding master detective, who may be the most complex and interesting of all mystery heroes, still functioning quite nicely in the new century.
If you love thought-provoking
mysteries, "The Murder Room" will bring you much pleasure--and
if you are looking for the perfect holiday gift for a mystery
fan, you need look no further.
©2003 by Ron Miller.
The Ron Miller caricature is ©2001 by Jim Hummel. The book
cover reproduction is ©2003 by Knopf Publishing.
Ron
Miller is a former nationally syndicated television columnist
and the author of "Mystery! A Celebration," the official
companion book to PBS' "Mystery!" series. He currently
teaches classes in mystery and related topics at two colleges
in Bellingham, Washington: Whatcom Community College and the
Academy of Lifelong Learning at Western Washington University,
as well as for the Elderhostels program at Washington's Skagit
Community College.
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