Original Sin

I remember buying this on the day it was published, and am dumfounded now to realise that that that that was almost thirty years ago. Re-reading it now, I couldn’t remember any of the details of the plot, and had certainly forgotten who the murderer was, although I did have a recollection of having especially enjoyed it. That was borne out by this re-reading, and I think it may well be my favourite of P D James’s books.

I have always had a particular taste for fiction about the world of books, so this was always going to appeal to me, with the story being set in an old publishing house. Peverell Press claimed to be the country’s oldest publisher, having been established in a glorious reproduction of a Venetian palazzo on the show more eastern reaches of the Thames. It had remained entirely under the control of the Peverell family until just after the Second World War, when a hero of the French resistance had bought a significant share, introducing much needed working capital. Now his son, Gerard Etienne, is managing director and his daughter Claudia is also on the Board, along with Frances, last of the Peverells, Gabriel Dauntsey, an ageing formerly venerated poet, and James de Witt, an accomplished literary critic.

Gerard Etienne has ambitious plans for the company, but they involve a programme of radical modernisation and ‘downsizing’, and he has stirred up considerable animosity both among his fellow directors and more widely across the company’s workforce. His ardour for reform is not damped by a series of ‘pranks’ that have caused slight reputational damage to the company. However, the tide of change is stemmed when he is found dead in the company’s archive room, with a fabric draught excluder in the shape of a snake tied around his neck, its head thrust into his mouth. It is at this point that Commander Adam Dalgleish is called in, ably assisted by his Detective Inspectors Kate Miskin and Daniel Aaron.

P D James always writes well-crafted prose, and organises the plot development in a closely managed method. I always find her books reminiscent of those of Iris Murdoch – the principal characters are always slightly odd, and approach day to day life in a rather oblique manner. One sometimes imagines that the linguistic style is of greater significance than the substance of the story. However, in both cases, I find that it works. I happily suspend my disbelief, and where with less accomplished writers I might roll my eyes impatiently, I am content to go wherever they might take me. show less

It's been years since I've read a classic British murder mystery. I picked this one up on a whim while browsing a neighborhood Little Free Library. I was surprised how much I enjoyed it, like eating a big plate of mac n cheese: nostalgic, not especially nutritious but very satisfying.

Reading this book didn't help me gain any new understanding of the world, but it was a pleasant diversion which, given how greedily I gulped it down, I seem to have needed.

Murders in Publishing
Review of the Vintage Canada paperback (2011) [with Notes via the Kindle eBook] of the Faber & Faber hardcover original (1994)

Not for nothing were there those five shelves of crime paperbacks in her bedroom, Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Margery Allingham, Ngaio Marsh, Josephine Tey and the few modern writers whom Joan considered fit to join those Golden Age practitioners in fictional murder. - a character in "Original Sin" admires her collection of classic crime novels.

The 9th Adam Dalgliesh novel finds his elite team from Scotland Yard CID investigating the apparent murder of the managing director of one of the most prestigious publishing firms in the UK. This is at the (fictional) Peverell Press which is show more housed in a mock Venetian palazzo called Innocent House, built on the Thames in the area of Wapping in East London. The publisher was ruthlessly dragging the stodgy firm into the late 20th century by planning to sell off the building and move the business to the Docklands, cut non-selling, past their prime authors and trim staff, especially long-time employees. There is no shortage of suspects.

Dalgliesh said: "Mr. Gerard Etienne took over as chairman and managing director fairly recently, didn't he? Was he well-liked?"
"Well he wouldn't have been carried out of here in a body bag if he was a little ray of sunshine about the place. Someone didn't like him, that's for sure." - Dalgliesh interviews Mrs. Demery, the kitchen staff at Peverell Press.

To complicate matters further, the publishing house had recently seen another on-site death only weeks before with the suicide of one of its editors who had been given notice. A prankster is also working behind the scenes to sabotage the business by hiding manuscripts and cancelling author engagements. Dalgliesh and his regular assistant Kate Miskin and new assistant Daniel Aaron are faced with a mysterious cause of death in an apparently sealed archive room with every suspect having alibis. And then yet another murder occurs.

See design at https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/articles/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/london-bridge-ci...
Proposed design of an unbuilt Venetian inspired set of buildings on the Thames from the 1980s which were never built. Possibly the inspiration for the Venetian palazzo of Peverell Press on the Thames in "Original Sin". Image sourced from Unbuilt London.

I very much enjoyed Original Sin (the significance of the title doesn't become clear until towards the very end of the book), with P.D. James' extensive character building and descriptive settings of both the publishing house and its environs. Some of the characters are archetypes i.e. the ruthless business head, the subservient sibling, the washed up author, the rejected love interest etc. but this is James at the top of her game and I'd even say this is one of my favourites of hers. Probably that is partially because it is set in a world of books. Kirkus Reviews described it as "the Middlemarch of the classic detective story," and that seems as good a one-line summary as any.

See original cover at https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e7/OriginalSin.jpg
Front cover of the original Faber & Faber hardcover edition (1994). Image sourced from Wikipedia.

I read Original Sin as part of my continuing 2022 binge re-read of the P.D. James novels, which I am enjoying immensely. I started the re-reads when I recently discovered my 1980's P.D. James paperbacks while clearing a storage locker.
See photograph at https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FSug6xHWYAERmYI?format=jpg&name=medium
Rescued from storage and due for re-reading, my early P.D. James paperbacks, mostly published by in the 1980s.

Trivia and Links
Original Sin was adapted for television in 1997 as part of the long running Dalgliesh TV-series for Anglia Television/ITV (1983-1998) starring actor Roy Marsden as Commander Adam Dalgliesh of Scotland Yard. You can watch the 3 episodes of the 1997 adaptation starting with Episode 1 on YouTube here.

The new Acorn TV-series reboot Dalgliesh (2021-?) starring Bertie Carver as Adam Dalgliesh has not yet adapted Original Sin. Season 1 adapted books 4, 5 & 7. There has not been an announcement of the Season 2 and Season 3 adaptations (as of late-November 2022). show less

I am never disappointed when I pick up an Adam Dalgliesh mystery, I know what I will get: excellent plotting, thoughtful characterization, an impossible maze of clues, patient description and scene setting, and deep literary references. ‘Original Sin’ delivers, and it also gives life to London and the River Thames.
This is the ninth outing for James’ poet detective, Commander Dalgliesh, the taciturn, thoughtful, policeman with the stare which is as hard-as-nails. His colleagues respect him but cannot say they either know or like him. He is mysterious, and thereby hangs the fascination he holds for readers.
The first death at Peverell Press, a traditional publishing house located in a Venetian-style house beside the Thames, is a show more suicide, the body found by a new employee. The same employee has the misfortune to find another dead body later in the book. There are a lot of dead bodies at Peverell Press, and there is also a prankster. Proofs wrongly amended, illustrations disappear, appointments cancelled. When the managing director, Gerard Etienne, is found dead of carbon monoxide poisoning, upstairs in the little archive room, the death is considered suspicious enough to call in the police.
This is a complicated web of a story, James weaves together the current and back stories of the key Peverell employees, their alibis, their affairs and petty spats, their lies and secrets. Is the murderer and the prankster the same person, and what of the suicide? Is that connected? Essentially the building where Peverell Press is based, Innocent House, provides a closed-room mystery: the murderer must come from within the company but although some are haughty, others unlikeable and the rest just gossips, someone there must have done it.
Did I guess? No. The motive is fascinating, though I could have done with a few more hints earlier on.
Read more of my book reviews at http://www.sandradanby.com/book-reviews-a-z/ show less

Re-read, I think (from ages ago). Takes aaaaaages to get going (I guess a 100-page section entitled "foreword to murder" warns you of this). Like James has decided that the way to add psychological depth to a whodunnit is to describe exhaustively what is going on with every single character. There's things to like in this and things not to: the descriptions are sometimes informed by a somewhat unpleasant sensibility.

As a whodunnit this is very cleverly constructed, with lots of red herrings, no withholding of information but withholding of interpretation (turns out the police have more of a notion than the reader is told until late on).

The solution does seem to rely on some improbable coincidences, but that's par for the course. And it show more does gather speed very nicely towards the end.

James' conservatism and social illiberalism is less prominent here than elsewhere, but it is certainly there. show less

Honestly I had not thought of the actual murderer thru most of the book = when it was revealed it made a lot of sense but the breadcrumbs of the hints were well hidden until the end. Excellent mystery.

James writes this mystery, set at the fictional Peverell Press in London, with exceptional knowledge of the activity and dynamics of a publishing house. The celebration and critique of this world made the setting enjoyable for me. Along with some theological reflection on the title of the book and a twist on James' usual mystery formula, I found a lot to like in this book. My main critiques are that Dalgliesh wasn't in the book as much as he is in most volumes in the series and too much information was withheld until the end, meaning that the reader is really just along for the ride, rather than really unraveling the mystery.