An Unsuitable Job for a Woman (1972)

Enjoyable, if weirdly conservative in its underpinnings (beware radicals!). I always get a little thrill from interconnected novels (in a series or otherwise). 13 ways of looking at Adam Dalgliesh. ( )

Read for my Crime Fiction class. This one certainly wasn't talked up at all by the lecturer, which didn't help, but her comment that "Gray" is a very appropriate name for this female detective is unfortunately true. The whole book was drab and gray for me: the writing was never exciting, the tension never had me curious to read on, the characters rarely compelled me -- the only character I found interesting was the murdered boy, who I felt sorry for.

I'm sure this must be somehow influential or interesting in terms of Crime Fiction, but I couldn't get into it or enjoy it and I'm not planning to write an essay about it. The writing -- the actual mechanics of it, the characters, all of it -- is entirely functional, but entirely uninspired. Part of this might be me as a reader, and the world I've grown up in, of course. The idea of a female detective is no longer surprising, for one thing. ( )

Happy to have read first of Cordelia Gray mystery. A 22-year woman on her first assignment in pre-Internet era: when you visited a newspaper office to check news from previous week, visited a government office to checkout a will and police procedures weren't as advanced and snazzy as in Bond movies or Behavioral Unit of FBI (as in Criminal Minds). Here is a lone women, who is again and again told that she is not in a suitable job like this and nothing more than an unlicensed revolver to her aid. This book also gives an insight into old England. The plot and writing style is intriguing, though unraveling of the mystery is rather lackluster. I can not remember any high points of thrill in the book, yet character development and presentation style is a plus. ( )

This Cordelia Grey mystery may deserve 4 stars but I find myself increasingly disliking crime novels in which the guilty go uncaught or unpunished. One could argue that, since Sir Ronald Callender, Lunn, and Miss Leaming all end up dead, this isn't such a novel. However Cordelia's willingness to conceal Miss Leaming's act bothers me. ( )

There are many wonderful things about older crime novels. Without hi-tech gadgets, in-depth forensic analysis and overly sadistic killers, the writer nearly always has to rely on incredible language and story telling skills to keep the reader engaged and excited. P D James wrote the first Adam Dalgliesh novel in 1962 and her novels continuously make best selling lists over 40 years later. I really, really enjoyed An Unsuitable Job for a Woman in so many ways - sadly it is the first of only two books in the Cordelia Gray series, but I definitely will read more of James' Dalgliesh novels in the future.

Life for Cordelia is, in my opinion, quite wonderful. She is young, described to be quite pretty, and she is a partner in a fun but unconventional private investigation agency. This is the case until her partner Bernie unexpectedly kills himself. Not a great start to the novel. After Bernie's affairs are set in order, Cordelia receives an unexpected client. The wealthy and well-known Sir Ronald Callender's son has recently committed suicide, and Mr Callender wishes to know why his son would choose to end his life. Without many options, Cordelia accepts the case and ends up staying in the cottage the young Mr Callender lived in before he died. Cordelia's keen eye for detail reveals that certain things don't add up to suicide, and she starts to suspect foul play was involved.

This is where the novel really begins to shine. Cordelia is not a trained policewoman, nor is she a specialist in any kind of medical or legal field. Her only understanding of detection came from her unpredictable mentor and partner Bernie. She is essentially a normal, everyday person who has to make do with logic and intuition. She is sharp, sassy and knows what to ask, when to ask it, and how to interpret the ways people respond to her. Her hunt for the truth surrounding the Callender suicide takes her all over Cambridge and on a wild chase that gets her noticed by the wrong person. After a nearly fatal accident, pieces of the puzzle begin to fall into place in rapid succession, leading to an explosive climax that was somewhat predictable but expertly delivered all the same.

James' stellar knowledge and use of the English language made this novel a delight to read. It is remarkably both well written and easy to understand at the same time, putting it in a well-deserved class of its own. Reading quality writing almost makes some more mainstream novels easier to handle... almost. James is a superstar in her own right and after reading An Unsuitable Job for a Woman I completely understand what the fuss is about. If all modern authors wrote half as well as this, I think the book industry would be in an incredibly different situation. There is a lot of rubbish out there. This, however, is quality literature at its finest. ( )