- Hardcover: 432 pages
- Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf (Nov 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1400041414
- ISBN-13: 978-1400041411
- Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 15.7 x 4.1 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 926,144 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
The Murder Room
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Review
'Each new book gives pleasure not just for macabre crimes or ingenious solutions, but its intensity of experience'. Malcolm Bradbury, Mail on Sunday
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Oxford Mail
"P D James’s new offering is another masterpiece of detailed characters and beautifully-drawn plots."
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
one of PD James' most enjoyable books,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Murder Room (Paperback)
Adam Dalgliesh is called in to investigate the murder of one of the trustees of the Dupayne Museum. This is one of PD James' most enjoyable books, because the characterisation is so good. Time (and pages!) are taken to set the scene and introduce the characters. It is time well spent as the characters are easily distinguishable, believable and sympathetically written. The plot is that of a typical British who dunnit. It is easy to read, but what sets this book apart from the standard crime novel is the quality of the writing, which was superb. A book not to be missed by anyone enjoying good British crime fiction.
22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Not her strongest, but still excellent stuff,
By
This review is from: The Murder Room (Hardcover)
One morning, by chance, Commander Dalgleish has opportunity to visit the Dupayne, a small private museum on the edge of Hampstead Heath. It deals with the inter-war years, 1918-1939, and its most renowned exhibition is The Murder Room, a display of artefacts and information on the most notorious murder cases of the day. However, within a week Dalgleish will have cause to return to the Dupayne, but not for recreational purposes this time. This time, he will be investigating a brutal murder. Dr Neville Dupayne, one of the three trustees of the museum, it being passed on to him and his brother and sister upon the death of their father, is found dead in a burning car near the museum, in a scenario exactly mirroring one of the cases featured in the bizarre Murder Room. And there is no lack of people with a motive, for the Dupayne is coming up for renewal of it's lease which, under the conditions of their late father's will, must be signed by all three trustees or become void, and Neville is the only one who refuses to sign. Yet there are several people whose futures have a strong stake in the future and continued running of the museum... Then, mere days later, another body is found, once again killed in an identical manner to one of the cases from the Murder Room... Perhaps not quite James's strongest novel, this is still a very good book, and will undoubtedly follow on the immense success of her last, Death in Holy Orders. As a novel, it is traditional in its form, but with James that means nothing, certainly not that you are in for anything like a "cosy" mystery. Content within the boundaries of the genre, she finds those limits not limiting at all, instead using them as foundations and support for an incredibly worthy novel that tells us much about the human condition and the society we, in England at least, live in. It is impeccably written (of course), socially interesting, with a strong sense of morality, and I doubt that there is a writer at work today who can more subtly but fully evoke a setting. Too, the eerie nostalgia of the museum itself is mirrored beautifully in both the story and the narrative prose itself. Her characters are incredibly strong, they slink from the page fully-formed and ready for our judgement. They range from the sympathetic to the cold, from calculating to warm. Never are any of them less than human. In the end, she presents a solution that is very satisfying not for that it is a bolt form the blue, but for that it is entirely sensible. She has you working out complicated solutions to the mystery, then presents you with an entirely plausible one that you never really even considerd, which is an admirable trait indeed in a world of fiction that is far too full of gratuitous unreality.
39 of 43 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Immensely satisfying,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Murder Room (Hardcover)
As with all of PD James's works, _The Murder Room_ involves murder's intrusion upon a setting of near-pristine order. In this case, it is the private Dupayne Museum in Hampstead, in which the fate of the museum and that of its trustees, employees, and hangers-on, rides in the balance. As Commander Adam Dalgliesh and Detective Inspectors Kate Miskin and Piers Tarrant investigate, they confront the very embodiments of loyalty, betrayal, and selfishness.I had fully expected that PD James's previous novel, _Death in Holy Orders_, was the conclusion to the Dalgliesh series, so I was thrilled to hear about _The Murder Room_ and have been anticipating it for some time. This seems to be quite a nostalgic work for Lady James, with more than a few echoes from her previous works and with far more insight into characters' (especially Dalgliesh's) innermost thoughts than we have previously seen. It's hard for me to recall when so many of the characters' thoughts in a PD James novel have been set aside in italics, and when she has shared so much of her thoughts (via her characters) on issues of class, racism, and sexuality. At the same time, this is also in my mind the most romantic novel she has written, with a moving homage to her favorite writer, Jane Austen. On its own, _The Murder Room_ is a solid crime novel, with some macabre causes of death and fascinating glimpses into the history of crime (the "Murder Room" refers to a room in the Dupayne Museum devoted to memorabilia from famous crimes between the two World Wars; this echoes the room "Memento Mori" in _The Skull Beneath the Skin_). It is somewhat sparse on actual detection, but the prose is beautiful and the conclusion quite moving--profoundly so for this longtime admirer of PD James.
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