Unnatural Causes

Adam Dalgliesh #3: Unnatural Causes

  - P.D. James

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The third book in the series was a disappointment, specially because I liked the second one a lot, and expected much from the rest of the series.

This is again a closed circle murder mystery, with a limited number of possibilities and everyone under a shadow of suspicion. I think it started well, but became progressively sluggish and somewhat bizarre. I liked the author's patience in building up the atmosphere in previous books, but I began to feel like it was too much of a good thing - lengthy descriptions of surroundings or oblong thoughts of the characters are not holding up my interest any more. I am more interested in people - so I like to read about their back history and how it shapes their personality and motives, as well as the detective's talks and observations with them.

Once again, nearly all the characters were unlikable, and one of them was stereotypical shallow and insensitive. In fact, I couldn't develop a great liking for Dalgliesh's character either. Further, it is not his case; so his unofficial role in the investigation caused the plot to suffer, while his mutual dislike towards the official investigator was unnecessary and uninteresting. And sad to see that the quiet but intelligent Marin is missing.

I had guessed early who committed the murder and how it was carried out, and felt a satisfaction to find that I was at least partly correct. However, the main culprit's identity and the motive was quite unsatisfactory and far-fetched to me. But what is most disappointing (and definitely not a mark of of a good mystery/thriller IMHO) is the way the great reveal is handled. Dalgliesh "knows" the who and how, and explains it to the official police in charge some way from the end, but the readers are privy neither to the information, nor to the process of arriving at it. I positively loathe it when the reader as well as the other characters get the full picture from a confession. In this case it was in the form of a tape, but from a readers' perspective it was several pages too long, and very unrealistic in tone. I don't know if it would sound better on audio, but I definitely didn't enjoy reading it.