The Murder Room [Paperback]

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.

Granted, James has given us a new twist (Adam is in love and her traditional
police procedural takes a different turn. But before one cries "soap opera," "The
Murder Room" is not about Adam Dalgliesh's personal life. It is about a series of
murder, a plot outline with which James is quite comfortable and her legions of fans
come to expect.

Circumstances surround the undertakings (forgive the pun) of the Dupayne
Museum,, a small, rather esoteric, museum devoted to the "interwar years," the
period in England from 1919 to 1939. However, the rub is that the lease on the
museum is about to expire and the three trustees (siblings) must agree totally on its
extension or else the museum cannot continue. One brother, Dr. Neville Dupayne, is
dead set (forgive the pun again) against signing; thus the demise of the museum is at
hand, it appears. Quickly into the book, the good doctor is found burned alive in
very suspicious circumstances and just about everyone has a motive for seeing him
dead. Commander Dalgleish and his team from New Scotland Yard are called in
and before this death can be solved, two others follow, all with connections to the
museum.

James clearly is in charge of this narrative and, as always, controls the pace
and the revelations of the investigation. Dalgleish is, as always, superb. The
resolution comes not through histrionics or melodrama, but the James/Dalgleish
penchant for brilliance.

Is this James' best? Hmmmm. "The best" is probably the individual
reader's personal choice, as I've yet to read a "bad" James, or even a "poor" one.
"The Murder Room" joins the other dozen or so Dalglieshes comfortably. It is an
excellent read. (Billyjhobbs@tyler.net)