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

Fratres in Unum*
A review of the Vintage Canada Kindle eBook edition (June 20, 2010) of the Faber & Faber hardcover original (2001).

I suppose even Dalgliesh doesn’t seriously suspect any of our fathers-in-God, although he’s probably keeping them in mind, particularly if he remembers his Pascal. ‘Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.’

I was pleased when my current Long Books Challenge with several GR friends gave me the opportunity to re-engage with my P.D. James / Adam Dalgliesh binge from 2023 which went into hiatus after I read A Certain Justice (Adam Dalgliesh #10 - 1997). The increasing lengths of the novels probably caused me to lose heart at the time, but now I was happy show more to tackle 545 pages in this Vintage Canada edition.

Death in Holy Orders finds Scotland Yard's Detective Commander Adam Dalgliesh sent to the St. Anselm's Theological College to investigate the apparent suicide of one of the students. While onsite, further deaths occur which are definitely murders. Was the suicide a murder as well? There are suspects and motives aplenty as the college is in danger of being closed down with the resulting resentments by the faculty and staff.

See cover at https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4e/Deathinholyorders.jpg
The front cover of the original Faber & Faber hardcover (2001). Image sourced from Wikipedia.

One of the guest lecturers in attendance at the college is Emma Lavenham from Cambridge University. Dalgliesh and Lavenham are drawn to each other, although the seriousness of the case means that their relationship does not develop further until the later novels.

I enjoyed Death in Holy Orders immensely, especially as the previous entry A Certain Justice had a whiff of an Unsatisfactory Ending to it (Dalgliesh also found it unsatisfactory and even mentions it a few times in this novel). Such was not the case with this outing. I have moved on immediately to The Murder Room (Adam Dalgliesh #12 -2003).

Footnote
* Fratres in Unum Latin: Brothers in Unity, from the 1st line in the Latin version of Psalm 133.

Trivia and Links
Death in Holy Orders has had two TV series adaptations.
The first was the BBC's adaptation in 2003 with Martin Shaw in the role of Adam Dalgliesh (the role had previously been played for 10 seasons by Roy Marsden on ITV). There is a fan made trailer which you can see on YouTube here.

The second adaptation was as part of AcornTV's reboot series Dalgleish (2021-ongoing?) with Bertie Carvel as Adam Dalgleish as Season 3's Episodes 1 and 2. See the Season 3 trailer here. There are also two excerpt clips available on YouTube as Quite A Place To Meet Your maker and Dalgliesh Investigates A Shifty Priest. 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.
Read more of my book reviews at http://www.sandradanby.com/book-reviews-a-z/ show less

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.

What a great murder mystery and a throw back to the old school detective novels. A body is discovered on the coast of England. Accident, suicide, or murder? When Adam Dalgliesh comes to investigate, readers will know it must be murder. Then an old woman is murdered, and the plot thickens. Dalgliesh begins to suspect it has something to do with an event from the past: incest, a secret marriage, thievery... When a third body, that of a High Church Archdeacon, turns up, the hunt is on. My first P.D James novel and I am looking forward to other couple I have collecting dust on my shelves.