Death in Holy Orders

The title makes it sound as though it's going to be a parody of the classic English murder story, and to some extent that's what it is. There are a few minor departures from tradition — the suspects are assembled in the library at the beginning of the story not the end, for instance — but in essence the story sticks quite closely to the time-hallowed formulae. Closed community; enough secrets, scandals and unsuspected connections to give practically everyone a motive; a succession of deaths that might or might not be murder, and might or might not be linked.

Of course, there is a bit more to it: this was written in 2001, not 1931, after all. On one level James foregrounds the decay of Anglicanism and all the values it represents: a show more little pocket of good taste, tolerance and intellectual rigour is threatened and unappreciated by the world: the North Sea and Blair's Cool Britannia are competing to destroy it. On another level, she prevents us from taking anything at face value by a string of literary jokes: practically all the minor characters have names that will send you trawling through the annals of English literature; most of them turn out to have shelves full of detective stories; we get a character who likes to "commune with his pigs", Lord Emsworth style, but acts in ways merely to imagine which would have given that mild-mannered peer a heart attack; the play-scene from Hamlet turns up with an oddly Trollopean twist. You get the idea. A strange mixture of postmodern playfulness with conservative doom and gloom. Oddly captivating, and just the thing for a winter Sunday afternoon with Radio Three playing in the background... show less

Wow, this book was so bizarre! I loved it! P.D. James covers almost every branch of human depravity, but in a very restrained British way. The prose and mystery are wonderful, and I enjoyed the poet-detective. Also really liked the setting of an Anglican theological seminary in a remote seaside location. CW for generally creepy Tory mindset and a pedophile who is universally agreed to have “not really hurt anyone.” This is my first time reading an Inspector Dalgliesh novel and I am looking forward to more.

Another well crafted Adam Dalgliesh murder mystery. James is at her most English in setting the murder in the elitist seminary St. Anselm's for the highest of high church Anglicanism. About half of the many characters could never appear in an American mystery. Dalgliesh is called by a British business magnate to investigate the apparant suicide of his son, who had been an ordinand at the seminary. During the investigation, a somewhat liberal Archdeacon of the Church is murdered in the chapel. The murder had to be an inside job, and so the resident priests, students, and local workers are all suspects. In the course of Dalgleish's examination, James has the opportunity to explore disaffection from religion, the role of the Church of show more England in modern society, and even the issue of priestly pedophilia. In the end, all our questions are answered by a perpetrator probably more voluble and confessatory than most, so that the reader can be satisfied as well as Dalgleish. But it's a small cavil - we needed to know, after all! Half the fun of the book redounds from the veddy veddy Englishness of it all.

(JAB)

What an absolute pleasure to encounter a detective novel featuring multiple murders that actually rises above the level of eighth grade reading and writing! James' prose and application of the English language is a pure joy to read. Felicitously structured sentences abound with words like tenebrous, etiolated, castellated, and peregrinations, while well-formed phrases such as "the smell of spice, fugitive as memory, still lingered...""desultory exchange of platitutes" and "the usual sobriquets" substitute for the usual tired mystery prose. After my husband heartily recommended P.D. James, I resisted; after all, the author is a woman in her eighties! James herself inserts a sly jab at those like me, when her character Emma muses "Why was it, she wondered, so difficult to believe that the old had been young, with the strength and animal beauty of youth, had loved, been loved, laughed and been full of youth's unmeditated optimism?" She caught me. And she taught me well. I am a chastened and converted P.D. James fan now.

(JAF) show less

A sandy cliff collapses, a theology student dies and his father suspects foul play. And so Adam Dalgliesh returns to St Anselm’s, the theological college which he visited as a boy. And so this murder mystery is cut through with Dalgiesh’s memories.
“When secrets are unspoken and unwritten they are lodged safely in the mind, but writing them down seems to let them loose and give them the power to spread like pollen on the air and enter into other minds.” So writes college housekeeper Margaret Munroe in her diary. She found Ronald’s body and was advised by Father Martin, a priest at St Anselm’s, to write about her experience as a way of coming to terms with what happened. Does she know a secret and write it in her show more diary?
Ronald’s death is declared accidental, a second staff member dies naturally. But then there is a third death and Dalgliesh is put in charge of the case.
His familiar team of Kate Miskin and Piers Tarrant are accepted uneasily into this closed community which is secretly worried the building houses a murderer, but outwardly tries to behave as normal. Included in the mix of clergy, teachers and students are several guests including a convalescing detective, a researcher and a university lecturer. At the heart of the mystery is the future of St Anselm’s and, if it is to close, who will inherit the building and its riches.
The motives are various, the suspects numerous. PD James plots with skill to keep us guessing, whilst layering the story with poetry, nature, art, theology and her observations of human nature. Excellent.
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Set in Lowestoft, just down the road from me, this is an excellently constructed novel based around a retreat. The whodunnit nature of the book is superbly handled and, I would be awarding five stars, without question, if it were not for Father John. Father John has been imprisoned for offences against young choristers under his supervision. Archdeacon Crampton, the victim, assisted the police in making their case against Father John and, we repeatedly get the other characters chastising the archdeacon for his unsporting behaviour to a fellow member of the church. I can only assume that this represents the author's views, to which, of course, she is fully entitled, but did grate, more than a little.

I enjoyed reading it, but I'm not clear/convinced about the motive. The victim may or may not have killed his first wife, hounded a fellow Anglican priest accused of being a pedophile, and righteously wanted to close down what he believes is the elitist theological college where the action takes place---but his beliefs are politically useful for a career in the church. Still his parishioners love him. Another character, approached by someone extremely worried, tells him that he is right to be worried and sends him away. And yet another, who feels she is being helpful and friendly, ruins someone's life and feels no guilt. In other words, the characters are more interesting than the deaths---which may be from natural causes, an accident, show more suicide, or murder. Also, England is a very small place with so few people that a very small, secluded college has a dinner attended by the victim, the detective who suspected him, the priest he hounded, and another priest whose academic career was hurt by a fellow dinner guest. There is also mention of a document, which may or may not be fake, purported to be signed by Pontius Pilate and whether it should be shared with the world. show less

In Death in Holy Orders, eleventh in the Adam Dalgliesh crime fiction series, his planned vacation is rerouted to a place he once stayed as a boy, a small religious college in an isolated coastal region, where a young ordinand’s death has been designated as an accident, but an anonymous letter to his father has since aroused suspicion - Dalgliesh arrives to find not one suspicious death at the college, but two, and these are followed by a brutal and very obvious murder.

I find P. D. James refreshing to read; her non-series characters (those who are not Dalgliesh, his colleagues, or connected to him personally) are incredibly well written, no matter how peripheral they may be. I’ve begun making a point of picking one up whenever a show more previous book disappoints me in terms of characterisation – to prove to myself that I’m not just being picky, that it’s possible to infuse any genre with individuals who are neither lazily portrayed, nor overplayed to compensate. There are other female crime writers who are just as strong in this area, but I’m on a P. D. James kick just now, because she also plots and instils atmosphere wonderfully, as well; in this book, the sadness and isolation were layered with beautiful subtlety. Death in Holy Orders seemed a little long-winded in places (there seemed to be more ‘middle’ to this book than was strictly necessary) but a very rewarding read. show less